Current Status of the Tell Ain Dara Temple

ASOR CHI geospatial analysis indicates that an attack damaged the Ain Dara temple in northwest
Syria on or before January 22, 2018. The Ain Dara temple is the best-preserved example of Syro-Hittite religious architecture from the late second and early first millennia BCE. It is elaborately decorated with basalt sculpture and reliefs. Larger-than-life human footprints carved into the temple’s stone thresholds are unique to the building. It is also considered to be a close parallel to the contemporary Temple of Solomon, which is known from descriptions in the Hebrew Bible.

The attack left two craters in the temple—one in the entrance to the building and the other in the entrance to the cella. Both craters are located where thresholds with carved footprints were situated. Due to their proximity to the explosions, the walls, floors, and decorations in the antecella, entrance portico, and southeastern facade of the building received the heaviest damage.