PALMYRA, Syria — As my Hezbollah escort and I entered the modern city around Palmyra, we were greeted by the mangled body of an Islamic State fighter left to rot in the sun. He looked as if dogs might have gotten to him after Syrian government forces, backed by loyal militiamen, routed him and his comrades from the ancient city after almost a year of Islamic State control.

In that time, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, destroyed some of the remains of a civilization that 2,000 years ago was a mix of Roman, Persian and local cultures.

Where Palmyra’s impressive Temple of Bel once stood, only a single stone archway was left to frame a rectangle of blue sky above the arid desert about 160 miles northeast of Damascus, the capital.