Russian team creates 3D model to preserve Palmyra as fighting intensifies

The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg has joined forces with a Russian archaeological institute to build an interactive virtual model of Palmyra, a task that is becoming ever-more important as reports emerged today (20 January) that Islamic State (Isil) militants have destroyed the ancient city's amphitheatre and a tetrapylon. When archaeologists and antiquities experts from the two institutions visited Palmyra, in Syria, in late September, they did not know that drone footage and co-ordi