2024-05-05T03:22:26-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150047866/ancient-syrian-ain-dara-temple-severely-damaged-in-turkish-airstrike Alexander Walter 2018-01-31T14:49:00-05:00 >2018-01-31T14:49:42-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ta/taayel4pvzlwjfdt.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Much of the magnificent 3,000-year-old temple of Ain Dara, with its mysterious and massive footprints and a structure that provides clues for understanding the biblical temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, has been destroyed in a Turkish airstrike. [...] Photos and video from the Syrian Observatory and Hawar News confirm that more than half of the temple is gone, including many of the sculptures that ringed the site.</p></em><br /><br /><p>"The temple, one of the largest and most extensively ancient excavated structures in Syria," <em>National Geographic</em> reports, "is famous for its intricate stone sculptures of lions and sphinxes, and for its similarities to Solomon&rsquo;s Temple&mdash;the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem, said to have held the Ark of the Covenant."</p>