Russian orchestra plays concert in Syria's war-torn Palmyra
Russia's famed Mariinsky orchestra held a concert amid the imposing columns of the the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday, even as large swathes of the country remain devastated by the country's civil war.
The archaeological gem was severely damaged by Islamic State militants who overran the UNESCO-preserved site, destroying priceless ancient architecture and statues.
"In the music that you will hear today, you hear our pain and our memory," conductor Valery Gergiev told the group of dozens that gathered in the amphitheater. "This concert in war-torn Palmyra is our appeal for peace."
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Palmyra contains the ruins of a city that was a cultural crossroads of the ancient world during the 1st and 2nd century. It's architecture drew from Greco-Roman, Persian styles and local traditions to create a city unlike any other.
Gergiev said the concert was a way to stand up against the atrocities of ISIS, which overran the ancient city and surrounding town in May 2015 and held it for 10 months before it was retaken by government forces in March of this year.
The extremist group executed dozens of people, including a group that were brutally slaughtered in the very amphitheater where Thursday's concert was being held.
"We protest against the barbarians who destroyed the wonderful monuments to the world’s culture, we protest against the executions of people here on this great great stage," he told the crowd, seen in video of the event posted by Russian news outlets.
He also paid tribute to 81-year-old Khaled Al-Asaad, an archaeologist who dedicated his life to studying Palmyra and who was beheaded by ISIS militants last year. He had been held hostage by the group who reportedly demanded information on where artifacts from the site were hidden.
A photo tribute to Al-Asaad appeared at the front of the amphitheater.
But despite the fact that Palmyra is no longer under siege, much of the country remains locked in a bloody civil war. The concert seemed out of place in the midst of ongoing reports of bombed hospitals, civilian casualties and food shortages.
Even as the concert was underway, clashes between regime and opposition forces intensified in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. Reports from activist groups in Idlib revealed that a refugee camp there was destroyed by an airstrike and dozens were killed.
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But in Palmyra, it was another scene entirely.
The audience included Russian servicemen, including those who have been de-mining Palmyra after Syrian government troops reclaimed the site with the help of Russian airstrikes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the crowd, delivering a speech by video, shown on a large screen in the amphitheater.
Putin said he regards the concert "as a sign of gratitude, remembrance and hope -- of gratitude to all those who fight terrorism without sparing one's own life; of remembrance for all victims of terror, regardless of the place and time of crimes against humanity; and of course hope not just for the revival of Palmyra as a cultural asset of all humanity but for the deliverance of modern civilization from this terrible ill, from international terrorism."
Additional information from the Associated Press.
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Megan Specia was Mashable's Assistant Real-Time News Editor and joined the team in September 2014. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism & Mass Communications from the University of New Hampshire after growing up in the Jersey 'burbs. She made her way to New York via a four year stopover in Dublin. Megan previously worked as a journalist and editor at Storyful in both Dublin and New York. Before all of that, though, her claim to fame was as head cake arranger and purveyor of all things sweet at Queen of Tarts cafe in Dublin, where she developed a serious addiction to macarons.
