The team aim to immortalise sites incase they are destroyed like Palmyra was

We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Make the most of your money by signing up to our newsletter fornow

The Million Image Database Project will distribute 5,000 cameras to war zones by the end of this year to capture one million images by the end of 2016.

Savage ISIS militants are destroying ancient relics claiming they promote idolatry - but the extremists are also believed to have sold off looted artefacts to fund their abhorrent regime.

The sick fighters even destroyed the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin during the siege.

It comes after the group demolished the Syrian city of Palmyra - a World Heritage site.

Scientists at Oxford and Harvard are planning to "flood" the region with 3D cameras to capture historically significant buildings and artefacts – preserving knowledge of them should they be obliterated.

There is hope. By placing the record of our past in the digital realm, it will lie for ever beyond the reach of vandals and terrorists

Director of the IDA, Roger Michel, said: "Palmyra is rapidly becoming the symbol of Isis's cultural iconoclasm.

"If ISIS is permitted to wipe the slate clean and rewrite the history of a region that defined global aesthetic and political sensibilities, we will collectively suffer a costly and irreversible defeat.

"But there is hope. By placing the record of our past in the digital realm, it will lie for ever beyond the reach of vandals and terrorists."

The cameras have been modified so "inexperienced users", such as museum workers, military personnel and charity volunteers, can upload images directly to a database.

The scientists hope images of the artefacts will be detailed enough to be able to recreate them using 3D printers, in the event they are destroyed.

A description of the project on the IDA website said: "We hope to capture one million 3D images of at-risk objects by the end of 2016.

"To that end, we have created a heavily modified version of an inexpensive consumer 3D camera that will permit inexperienced users to capture archival-quality scans."