Preservationists and archaeologists are warning that fighting in Syria’s commercial capital, Aleppo — considered the world’s oldest continuously inhabited human settlement — threatens to damage irreparably the stunning architectural and cultural legacy left by 5,000 years of civilizations.
Preservationists and archaeologists are warning that fighting in Syria’s commercial capital, Aleppo — considered the world’s oldest continuously inhabited human settlement — threatens to damage irreparably the stunning architectural and cultural legacy left by 5,000 years of civilizations.
Already the massive iron doors to the city’s immense medieval Citadel have been blown up in a missile attack, said Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund, an organization that works to preserve cultural heritage sites.
The cathedral is on the World Monuments Fund 2012 Watch List and £410,000 is still needed to fund restoration work.
Dr Jonathan Foyle, chief executive of the World Monuments Fund Britain, said: "The journey feels like it's just beginning.
"At the beginning of August, when we get that glass out, put it on public display, and show everybody else what's hidden there...We want to involve people and show them what's going on."
In September, Santa Maria Antiqua is scheduled to reopen for tour groups by invitation, and the public is scheduled to be allowed in next year. Analysis and conservation, under way since 2001 and partly financed by the World Monuments Fund, are nearly complete. The portraits of saints, surrounded by images of date trees and improbable fringed curtains, will remain partly unrestored and noticeably eroded.
If your budget is too tight to actually stroll along the banks of the Seine or trek through Jerusalem, Google is now offering a virtual alternative -- digital tours of famous sites across the world.
The World Wonders Project uses the same Street View technology that allows people to virtually navigate their neighborhoods through Google Maps, but the cameras are focused on historic and treasured sites such as Florence, Stonehenge and ancient Kyoto instead.
