The fragile past under fire: How conflict across the Middle East is threatening millennia of civilisation

Across the Middle East, cultural heritage stands at a crossroads, as the US-Israeli war on Iran escalates. 

From Tehran's Golestan palace to Tyre's Roman arches and Babylon's crumbling walls, the region's treasures face pressure from both active conflict and the quieter, chronic forces of war's aftermath.

At least 56 museums and historic monuments across Iran have suffered “serious structural damage” since the start of the war, according to the country's Ministry of Cultural Heritage in a statement carried by ISNA. Tehran province recorded the highest number of damaged sites, with 19 monuments affected, while 12 historic structures were reported damaged in Kurdistan province.

From Isfahan to Jerusalem: Heritage caught in the crossfire

"Iran is home to some of the world's most significant cultural heritage — including UNESCO World Heritage Sites, such as Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Isfahan. Thousands of archaeological sites, historic structures, and religious centres of worship and learning span millennia of human civilisation. These sites belong not only to the Iranian people, but to all of humanity," the US Committee of the Blue Shield (USCBS), an organisation dedicated to preventing the destruction, damage and theft of cultural property during armed conflict and natural disasters, said in a statement. 

Indeed, the significant damage to the Golestan Palace — a Qajar-era royal complex and UNESCO World Heritage site that hosted Pahlavi coronations and state ceremonies, and now functions primarily as a museum — has been lamented internationally. 

There have also been reports of damage to heritage sites in Isfahan, including the Chehel Sotoun, a 17th-century Safavid pavilion that forms part of the UNESCO-listed Persian Gardens. Iranian media said the damage occurred after airstrikes targeted government buildings near the historic complex in early March, with shockwaves and debris affecting the palace and surrounding gardens.

UNESCO confirmed damage to the Masjed‑e Jāme, one of Iran's oldest Friday mosques and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Isfahan, amid the widening war, and that other historic structures in Naqsh‑e Jahan Square, including the Ali Qapu Palace and mosque buildings, sustained damage.

The Isfahan governor, Mehdi Jamalinejad, said in a speech posted on social media, "Isfahan is not an ordinary city, it's a museum without a roof. In none of the previous eras, not in the Afghan wars, not in the Moghul conquest, not even during the 'sacred defence' [the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war] was this ever done.

"This is a declaration of war on a civilisation," he added. "An enemy that has no culture pays no heed to symbols of culture. A country that has no history has no respect for signs of history. A country that has no identity sets no value for identity."

There was also verified damage to buildings near the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Khorramabad Valley, which includes five prehistoric caves and one rock shelter that provide evidence of human occupation dating to 63,000 B.C.

According to Iranian sources, Falak‑ol‑Aflak Castle in Khorramabad, Lorestan province, was struck at its perimeter last Sunday, causing damage to surrounding offices and museum buildings.

In Sanandaj, Iran's second-largest Kurdish city, several 19th-century historic mansions, including the Salar Saeed and Asef Vaziri mansions, sustained damage to doors, stained-glass windows, and other architectural elements. These mansions serve as Kurdish museums and heritage sites.

Meanwhile, the Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem, a private institution dedicated to intercultural dialogue with the Muslim world that houses a globally significant collection featuring rare Persian treasures from the Safavid and Qajari eras, has, like most museums in the country, closed its doors and relocated its collection to safeguard it from ongoing airstrikes.

In Tel Aviv, two Bauhaus-style buildings in the UNESCO World Heritage site of the White City were damaged by Iranian missile strikes on 28 February, resulting in one death and multiple injuries.

Talya Ezrahi, international relations co-ordinator at Emek Shaveh, an Israeli anti-occupation group founded by archaeologists, notes that in the current crisis, cultural heritage is at risk from missile strikes.

"West Bank heritage sites," she tells The New Arab, "have been a victim of the occupation, cultural appropriation and destruction, a process which has massively intensified since 2023 when the Ministry of Heritage was taken over by the ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party. Just a few weeks ago, the Minister of Heritage said that anything built on Jewish heritage is a candidate for eradication. 

"It is definitely clear that sites that are not valued by the settlers are much more vulnerable because if they are damaged during the war with Iran, Israel will not be in a hurry to restore them."

Ancient Tyre at risk as strikes intensify

Across the border, two days after Lebanese Minister of Culture Ghassan Salamé called UNESCO Director General Khaled El-Enany in Paris, demanding intervention to protect Lebanese cultural heritage during the ongoing US-Israeli bombing of his country, Israel struck the ancient city of Tyre on 6 March.

According to state media and AFP, the strike that killed at least one person was in an area adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage site, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities with significant, predominantly Roman, archaeological sites.

The ancient city of Tyre includes a necropolis that was once the main entrance to the town, which straddles a wide Roman and Byzantine avenue dominated by a second-century triumphal arch, as well as an aqueduct and a 2nd-century hippodrome.

Near the city's ancient hippodrome, an AFP photographer at the scene witnessed rescue workers recovering at least one body and collecting what appeared to be scattered human remains on the ground.

"Enemy warplanes carried out a strike on the ruins district of Tyre city," near the Bass Palestinian refugee camp, the National News Agency said. Al-Bass is one of a dozen Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

According to an expert from ICOMOS Lebanon, the airstrike struck within the buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage site, a few metres from the site, and directly affected the hippodrome and the archaeological area near the site's entrance.

Lebanon ratified the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention in 2023, and the site was granted Enhanced Protection in 2024, meaning that "any strike in such close proximity constitutes a serious violation and a threat to the integrity and attributes of the World Heritage property," he told The New Arab.

Lebanese heritage has been at heightened risk since 2024, when UNESCO placed 34 cultural sites under enhanced protection.

As Israel's bombing campaign increases in Lebanon, the ancient Roman sites of Baalbek in the Bekka Valley and Tyre in the South — also hit by Israeli airstrikes in 2024 — are at particular risk. 

Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, president of Biladi, an NGO specialising in heritage protection that documented damage to five villages in Southern Lebanon after the 2024 war, told The New Arab that while world heritage sites are vulnerable, the real issue is one of "urbicide" – erasure of all architectural heritage, especially Ottoman houses and historical churches – in the Southern villages. 

In Iraq, Iranian‑aligned militias and allied forces have carried out repeated drone and missile attacks around Erbil in recent weeks. Missile strikes have also targeted militia positions in Babylon, and debris from missiles has been reported in Samarra. While no world heritage sites have been hit so far, ongoing attacks continue to pose a risk to the country's historic sites.

Mosul itself, which suffered extensive cultural destruction during the 2014–2017 battle with the Islamic State group, has been undergoing restoration of many of its iconic heritage sites — such as the Great Mosque of al‑Nuri — through UNESCO and international programmes.

Several unclaimed airstrikes have targeted PMF positions in and around Mosul, including areas near historically Christian towns such as Bartella, not far from the ancient Mar Mattai monastery. Some sources claim they were US airstrikes.

Babylon Iraq

Babylon, famous for the Hanging Gardens — one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World — was thought by the Mesopotamians to have been established by the god Marduk [Hadani Ditmars]

The massive brick gateway along the Street of Procession, adorned with bull and dragon reliefs representing gods like Marduk, once guarded access to Babylon’s city centre [Hadani Ditmars]

Rediscovered in Babylon in the late 1700s, this lion sculpture has become an iconic symbol, appearing on Iraqi currency and in local signage [Hadani Ditmars]

The opening of the recently restored temple of Ninmakh, the Sumerian mother goddess, in Babylon is likely to be delayed as the regional conflict intensifies [Hadani Ditmars]

The survival of shared human history

As strikes continue across cities from Tel Aviv to Tehran and Tyre, UNESCO has warned that cultural and environmental sites across the wider Middle East face growing danger. 

The organisation has urged all parties to exercise restraint and respect international conventions designed to protect cultural property during conflict, including the 1954 Hague Convention and the World Heritage Convention.

Heritage protection groups have echoed those calls, urging militaries to coordinate with cultural experts and avoid sites of historical significance.

For archaeologists and preservationists, the stakes are not only about monuments or artefacts, but about the survival of shared human history.

As one statement from heritage advocates put it: the destruction of cultural heritage is irreversible — erasing identity, memory, and the foundations that help societies rebuild after war.

Hadani Ditmars is the author of Dancing in the No Fly Zone and has been writing from and about the MENA since 1992. Her next book, Between Two Rivers, is a travelogue of ancient sites and modern culture in Iraq. www.hadaniditmars.com