Founding In 1929,
Henri Arnold Seyrig, the general director of antiquities in the
French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, started excavating the ruins of Palmyra and forcibly displaced the villagers to a government-built village, adjacent to the ancient site. The relocation was completed in 1932, making the ancient city of Palmyra ready for excavations,
20th century In the
Ottoman period of early 1900s, Palmyra was a village of 6,000 inhabitants.
21st century Syrian civil war On 13 May 2015, the militant terrorist organization the
Islamic State (IS) launched an attack on the modern town, raising fears that the
iconoclastic group would destroy the historic city. On 18 May IS captured the city, with their forces entering the area of the
World Heritage Site several days later. In May 2015, IS destroyed the tomb of Mohammed bin Ali, a descendant of the
Islamic prophet
Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law
Ali, and a site revered by
Shia Muslims, and sometime between then and 23 June destroyed the tomb of Nizar Abu Bahaaeddine, a
Sufi scholar who lived in Palmyra in the 16th century. Abu Bahaaeddine's tomb was situated in an oasis about from Palmyra's main ancient ruins. Mohammed bin Ali's tomb was located in a mountainous region north of Palmyra. Ten days prior to the tombs' destruction, ISIL destroyed a number of tombstones at a local cemetery for Palmyra's residents. IS is also reported to have placed explosives around Palmyra. They also destroyed the
Temple of Baalshamin in mid 2015. In March 2016 a
large-scale offensive by the SAA (supported by
Hezbollah and
Russian airstrikes) initially regained the areas south and west of the city. After capturing the orchards and the area north of the city, the assault on the city began. In the early morning hours of the 27 March 2016, the Syrian military forces regained full control over the city. In December 2016, IS
retook the oilfields outside of the city, and began moving back into the city center. On 1 March 2017, the Syrian army backed by warplanes, had
entered Palmyra and captured the western and northern western sections of the city amid information about pulling back by IS from the city. The next day, the Syrian Army recaptured the entire city of Palmyra, after IS fully withdrew from the city. On 19 April 2021, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that it had killed "up to 200 fighters", by targeting a "terrorist" base northeast of Palmyra. ==Demographics==