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A 2,000-year-old arch that narrowly survived being blown up by ISIS will be recreated using the world's largest 3D printer and erected in Trafalgar Square.

The life-sized copy of the entrance to the Temple of Bel, which is almost all that remains of the ancient building, is being built as a symbol of defiance against the terrorists.

The monument was largely reduced to rubble by Islamist fighters as part of their brutal campaign to wipe out Syria's pre-Islamic past.

The arch is being printed in Shanghai and will be shipped to Italy for finishing before being built in the shadow of Nelson's Column, according to reports.

(Image: Institute for Digital Archaeology)

There are plans for identical arches in Times Square, New York.

The Temple of Bel was considered among the best preserved ruins at Palmyra until it was blown up by Islamists in August.

(Image: Bernard Gagnon/Wikimedia Commons)

Satellite images taken after the explosion showed only the site's perimeter wall and the badly damaged arch remain.

ISIS also beheaded Khaled al-Asaad , the 82-year-old Syrian archaeologist who had looked after Palmyra’s ruins for four decades, and hanged his body in public.

During its history the structure served as a pagan temple, a Christian church and a mosque.

The whole of Palmyra, including the four cemeteries outside the walls of the ancient city, has been listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO since 1980.

(Image: ALAMY)

UNESCO, the UN heritage agency, has called the destruction an "intolerable crime against civilisation"

Read more:ISIS bombs and partially destroys world-famous 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel in Syria

Roger Michel, the IDA’s executive director, told the Times: “It is really a political statement, a call to action, to draw attention to what is happening in Syria and Iraq and now Libya.

"We are saying to them ‘if you destroy something we can rebuild it again’. The symbolic value of these sites is enormous. We are restoring dignity to people.”

Read more : ISIS: Satellite images show destruction of 2,000-year-old temple razed to the ground by terror group

The IDA, which is based at Oxford and Harvard universities, is undertaking a project to capture 1million 3D images of the world's most endangered sites so they could be recreated if destroyed.

It has issued 5,000 low-cost cameras to volunteers to help with the project so the historic sites can be digitally recorded.

However, the replica arch will not be created using this method because it was too badly destroyed in the bomb blast.

A 3D computer model of the original has instead been made using dozens of two dimensional photographs.

(Image: Alamy)

The Palmyra arch, which is due to be on display during World Heritage Week in April, will be made out of stone powder and a lightweight composite.

As well as the wholesale destruction of Palmyra, ISIS has been destroying monuments in sites including Aleppo in Syria, Mosul in Iraq and now Lybia.