10 June 2026
NEWPALMYRA is an open reconstruction of the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria. The project builds on the work of Bassel Khartabil, who photographed and modeled Palmyra from 2005. See also the NEWPALMYRA Wikipedia article.
| Period | Event |
|---|---|
| 2005–2012 | Bassel documents Palmyra and begins 3D work with Al-Aous Publishers |
| 2012 | Bassel arrested; original project files from this period are lost |
| Oct 2015 | NEWPALMYRA formally launched online |
| 2015–2016 | Major global press coverage |
| 2017 | Tetrapylon 3D print with Creative Commons and re:3D |
| Aug 2017 | Reports of Bassel Khartabil's execution |
| 2018 | #PALMYRAVERSE community campaign |
| Apr 2019 | ARTIFAQ platform announced |
| 2019–2020 | UCSD Library collaborations using community photos |
| Aug 2020 | Call to upload models to Wikipedia |
| Jan–Sep 2021 | Last news posts on this site archive |
| 2021–2026 | Gap — no news posts on newpalmyra.org (work continued off-site) |
| 2026 | Artifaq merged with Scale Publishing; site modernization |
Al-Aous Publishers hosted Bassel's original remodeling work. The project page states that source assets and models have since been lost. Current models are community re-creations from photos and archaeological sources — not direct continuations of Bassel's original files.
Little on-site documentation exists for who did what between Bassel's arrest and the October 2015 launch. Press posts and Wikipedia are the best available sources.
Eight monument models show completeness percentages (for example, Temple of Bel at 30%) but there is no per-model version history in the archive. Contributor attribution appears in scattered news posts only.
No news was published here between September 2021 and this modernization effort. Work may have continued on Artifaq, Sketchfab, and Wikipedia without site updates.
Arabic and other translations were planned under L10n/ but are not in the current repository branch. They may exist in older git history.
Community photos exist in 37 Flickr albums and were also submitted via Artifaq. Overlap and deduplication between these collections is not fully documented.
If you have primary sources, photos, or documentation that fill these gaps, email info@newpalmyra.org.