“We knew they would not leave him alone. We used to stand together and watch the trenches and the barricades go up … he couldn’t stop his tears. He’d say they were punishing everything – even the stone.” Isil seized control of Palmyra in May, prompting fears that it would seek to destroy the 2,000-year-old ruins of the ancient city, listed by Unesco as a world heritage site, as it has done elsewhere.