In Photos: Destruction at Syria's Temple of Ain Dara-DepthReading -

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In Photos: Destruction at Syria's Temple of Ain Dara

Summary: Ain DaraCredit: Syrian Human Rights ObservatoryThe 3,000-year-old temple of Ain Dara in Syria has reportedly been badly damaged by airstrikes between Jan. 20 and 22, 2018.Before damageCredit: Michael DantiAin Dara is located northwest of Aleppo, near Syri

Ain Dara

Credit: Syrian Human Rights Observatory

The 3,000-year-old temple of Ain Dara in Syria has reportedly been badly damaged by airstrikes between Jan. 20 and 22, 2018.

Before damage

Credit: Michael Danti

Ain Dara is located northwest of Aleppo, near Syria's border with Turkey. The temple is just south of the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin, which became the target of a Turkish military operation in January 2018. This photo shows the temple in 2010.

Iron Age temple

Credit: Michael Danti

The Neo-Hittite temple was built in the early first millennium B.C., at the beginning of the Iron Age.

Carving closeup

Credit: Michael Danti

A 2010 photo shows the temple's basalt "orthostats" (architectural blocks) that were carved with abstract as well as animal-inspired designs.

Ain Dara lion

Credit: Michael Danti

This 2010 image shows a colossal lion carved out of stone standing guard at the site of the temple

Feet fit for a god

Credit: Michael Danti

The doorways leading to the temple's interior spaces had limestone paving carved with giant footprints, thought to represent the footprints of a deity.

Footprints erased?

Credit: Michael Danit

The carvings are believed to have been heavily damaged in the strike.

Temple in ruins

Credit: Syrian Human Rights Observatory

Photos taken after the airstrike show that many of these sculptures appear to have been damaged. The destruction at the temple was condemned by the Syrian antiquities department, which called Ain Dara "one of the most important monuments built by the Aramaeans in Syria during the 1st millennium BC."