An opaque sheet of plastic covered the second-floor windows of the Palmyra Hotel in the Lebanese city of Baalbek, blocking the view of the Temple of Jupiter, one of the largest and best-preserved sanctuaries of the Roman world.
The hotel’s thick windowpanes were shattered by an Israeli air strike on 7 November, which hit an Ottoman-era building across the street, reducing it to a pile of skeleton-grey rubble. After the blast, the antique wooden doors that have been open for visitors since 1874 were blown off their hinges, furniture overturned, and copper dinner plates scattered across the ornate tile floors.
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