Mosul treasures survived millennia, only to be destroyed by ISIL

BAGHDAD — Since its takeover of the city of Mosul two years ago, the Islamic State has destroyed dozens of statues, friezes, manuscripts and other artifacts that date back millennia, according to archaeologists and residents.

As Iraqi forces move closer to recapturing Mosul, archaeologists and exiled residents brace themselves for what they will find left of an illustrious past that is deeply embedded in the city's identity.

"Mosul without its monuments is merely a big, featureless village with spiritless residents in its neighborhoods," said Mohammed Younis, 21, who grew up in the al-Muhandisin neighborhood.

The modern city was built atop ancient Nineveh, the 4,000-year-old, formerly glorious capital of the Assyrian King Sennacherib. At its height, Ninevah was the largest city in the world. It even outshone Athens — with two hillside acropolises.

Younis lived on the eastern bank of the Tigris, a few blocks from the ruins of Nineveh, which is mentioned in the Bible, and the famed Assyrian gates dating from 700 B.C.

"Those gates were with me on my way (anywhere) throughout my life," he said. "I'd walk by sometimes and remember that we used to have a past much better than our present."

The gate that stood on the outskirts of Younis’ neighborhood is gone, another target of the Islamic State's campaign of destroying cultural monuments the fundamentalist group deems blasphemous.

The Islamic State has destroyed world-famous statues and structures in ancient Palmyra, Syria, which the militant group retook this past weekend after being driven out this year. (See gallery below)

In Mosul, 12 conical domes, 15 shrines and 31 priceless altars, among other treasures, have been damaged beyond repair, archaeologists estimate.

Last year, militants took sledgehammers to 2,000-year-old stone statues at the Mosul Museum and burned books and treasured manuscripts at the Mosul library. They posted the destruction in Internet videos and photos.

U.S. airstrikes aim to stop ISIL car bombs in Mosul

One reason archaeologists fear what they will find in Mosul is based on what happened to the ancient city of Nimrud, about 20 miles to the east, on Nov. 19, six days after Iraqi coalition forces liberated it.

Layla Salih, head of the Iraqi government’s cultural heritage department in Nineveh, returned to Nimrud and discovered a city in ruins, where structures that had once reached heights of more than 140 feet were reduced to half their size.

Nimrod's Ishtar temple, famed for the beautiful winged bulls with men’s heads that adorned the sides of its gates, was all but lost. There was indisputable evidence of bulldozing and explosives, Salih said.

"Only the foundation of the temple was left," she said. "I can say the damage is about 90%."

Archaeologists are trying to repair or preserve the monuments still standing. But the government's priority is funding the resettlement of Iraqis displaced by the fighting, so it could be years before any major work on the structures is conducted.

Rebuilding won’t heal Mosul's traumatized residents whose identities were intertwined with the relics of their Assyrian past, said Imad Al-Shammary, a former lecturer at the Northern Technical University in Mosul.

Al-Shammary fled for Turkey in October 2014, a few months after the militants took hold of Mosul. He knew what would happen if they laid hands on Nineveh's treasures.

"I had one last glimpse of the monuments before I left to bid farewell to our ancestors' glory," he said. "I knew I might not see them when I came back."

Al-Shammary said he feels sick to his stomach whenever he sees evidence of the destroyed monuments. "I feel now that we have no history, no identity, no memory," he said.

Despite his despondence, Al-Shammary plans to pay homage to his heritage in the same ways he used to tell his students to do.

"I used to remind them that we should preserve our heritage as a record for our children," he said. "I know now that if I marry and have a daughter, I will call her Nineveh."

Davis reported from Berlin and Nabeel from Istanbul.