Bel of Palmyra

The head of the Palmyrene triad, worshipped alongside Yarhibol and Aglibol as the city's presiding god of sky and cosmic order, his name and much of his character carried from the Mesopotamian Bel-Marduk tradition and grafted onto an older local Aramaic storm god cult already present at Palmyra. His temple, formally dedicated in 32 CE and built on the site of an older sanctuary, was the largest and most important religious building in the city for nearly two thousand years, its courtyard and cella still substantially standing until the militant group Islamic State destroyed it in August 2015 during its occupation of the city, an act widely reported and condemned internationally as a deliberate attack on a UNESCO World Heritage site.