The damaged site of Hatra

The World Heritage Site of Hatra in modern Iraq definitely deserves our undivided attention!

We will remember the bone-chilling pictures of ISIS smashing and destroying so many features of this Parthian city that survived for two thousand years.

[Map from Mr Barton's AP World History]

As early as the 7^th century, Parthia occupied the land in modern northeast of Iraq but when a century later Cyrus the Great created his larger Persian empire, the territories of the Medes and the Parthians were automatically assimilated. This was the empire which the Achaemenids inherited and Alexander the Great conquered in 331 BC. After his death, this part of his realm fell into the hands of the Seleucids. Parthia soon established its own empire but remained the center of conflicts between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, and later on the Romans. Their empire was created in 247 BC and as an independent country they managed to survive for roughly five hundred years. Eventually they fell to Ardashir who became the first king of the Sassanid Empire in 224 AD.

Parthia was very much coveted as a prosperous center of trade and commerce, being located on the Silk Road between the Roman Empire and the rising Empire of the Han dynasty in China. Because of its strategic position, the country underwent the influences of both west and east, generally showing a combination of Achaemenid and Seleucid elements. Yet they added their own architectural features like for instance the vaulted iwans which they produced on monumental scale (the largest iwan has a span of 15 meters).

Overall, the surviving remains of Hatra date from the 1^st century BC but most buildings belong to the period between 117 and 150 AD.

Recently the ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives has published a highly interesting article by Jaimy O’Connell about the damaged relics of Hatra with great photographs of pre- and post-damaged buildings and features enhanced with pertinent comments. Please click on this link to see them all as I will show you only a select choice.

The temenos of Hatra in the center of the city counted almost twenty temples. This aerial view 

[An aerial photograph of the temenos of Hatra (Dr. Suzanne E. Bott, US State Department; October 16, 2009)]

as well as the plan tell a lot about the grandeur of that time.

This pre-damaged picture of the interior speaks for itself:

[A pre-damage photograph of the interior of room 12 of the Great Iwans (Dr. Suzanne E. Bott, US State Department; January 2010)]

The same goes for this splendid Hellenistic Temple before being damaged.

[A photograph of the colonnade of the Hellenistic Temple (from the southeast) showing damage from gunfire or mortars (Art Daily, April 27, 2017).]

The pictures of the recent barbarian destruction simply break my heart and I cannot include them in this precious reference to glorious times past but they are part of the article by the ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives and have been showed on several occasions in the media also.

Would it be asking too much to see that future generations will remember the beauty and the splendor of places like Hatra without having to relive the senseless destruction by these fanatics? Unfortunately, all wars over the centuries have destroyed precious relics out of pure stupidity and/or greed. It seems that mankind will never learn.