Culture security

Mapping How Terrorists Are Destroying The World's Cultural Sites

How do you stop the deliberate destruction and looting of cultural sites by groups like ISIS? If military action can’t stop terrorist groups from killing people and occupying territory, then how can it hope to protect an individual shrine? And should we even be bothering with protecting property when people are being killed or persecuted?

The Antiques Coalition thinks so, and its campaign starts the way most good campaigns start—with a good map.

ISIS and other groups have not only destroyed entire temples at Palmyra in Syria and Nimrud in Iraq, they have also destroyed Judeo-Christian and Sunni Muslim religious sites, says the Antiquities Coalition. The groups also steal artifacts and sell them to raise funding.