Assessing the damage to Palmyra's antiquities

PALMYRA WATCH: Syrian troops clear Palmyra of mines as scale of fresh damage is revealed (Josie Ensor, The Telegraph/AP).

Speaking to the Telegraph earlier this week, Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's antiquities minister, said he was devastated by the new damage but thankful most of the structures were largely in tact and still standing.

"We must work now to preserve what is left," he said. "This isn't just the government's heritage, but the opposition's and the world's."

He will travel to the ancient site next week from Damascus to assess what needs to be restored.

Background on Palmyra, its history, the ancient Aramaic dialect spoken there (Palmyrene), and the city's tragic reversals of fortune, for now shifting for the better, is here with many, many links.