A replica of the Arch of Triumph that was destroyed by ISIS in Palmyra, Syria, is now on display for three days in London's Trafalgar Square.
The marble structure — designed by the US-based Institute of Digital Archaeology (IDA) — was installed in the British capital on April 19 during World Heritage Week as "an important gesture of friendship and solidarity,"according to a statement from the IDA's executive director Roger Michel.
The IDA constructed the model with the help of academics from Harvard and Oxford University using 3-D machines. The design was based on photographs of the original 2,000-year-old monument, which was blown up by ISIS in October 2015.
"We've been collecting digital images for the last 18-24 months," Michel told Business Insider over the phone. The organisation has been archiving photos of at-risk monuments and heritage sites all over the world with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa, Michel explained.
"Our aim is to highlight the potential for the triumph of human ingenuity over violence by offering innovative, technology-driven options for the stewardship of objects and architecture from our shared past,"a statement on the IDA's website reads.
The model of the 3rd-century arch will officially be unveiled by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in the afternoon of April 19, The Telegraph reports.
It will stand in Trafalgar Square until April 21, when it will be taken down from around 4 p.m., according to a spokesperson for the IDA.
The replica — which takes a few hours to assemble — will travel to Dubai later this year and to New York City in September, before being returned to Syria where it will go on public display near the historic site where the original once stood.
"It is a message of raising awareness in the world,"Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's director of antiquities, told the BBC. "We have common heritage. Our heritage is universal — it is not just for Syrian people."
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