Assad's fall: Syria's stolen antiquities flood Facebook

They come by night. Armed with pickaxes, shovels, and jackhammers, looters descend on Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, disturbing graves buried for over 2,000 years in a desperate search for treasure.

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By day, the aftermath is visible: deep holes scar the landscape, tombs lie shattered, and remnants of funerary gold and ancient artefacts are nowhere to be found, according to a report in The Guardian.

"This destruction makes it impossible for archaeologists to interpret what they're seeing," said Mohammed al-Fares, a Palmyra resident and activist with Heritage for Peace. Standing near the remnants of a looted crypt, he placed a broken shard of pottery beside a rusted mortar tailfin—symbols of war and greed. Palmyra, a third-century BC city, has already suffered significant damage at the hands of Islamic State militants, who blew up its iconic ruins in 2015.