Looting at Apamea recorded via Google Earth

The two images below show the same archaeological site, the ancient city of Apamea, in Syria, firstly as captured by Google Earth on 20th July 2011, and then on 4th April 2012. The scale of looting in between the months when the images were taken can be seen clearly.

These images are reproduced here with kind permission from Dr Ignacio Arce, Director of the Spanish Archaeological Mission to Jordan, who originally took the images from Google Earth.

Apamea as seen on Google Earth, 20th July 2011

Apamea as seen on Google Earth, 4th April 2012.

*Updated*

Some further images of Apamea, dated, kindly provided by Daniel Pett of the British Museum. Each image can be clicked to enlarge.

Google Earth image of Apamea dated 21st December 2003

Google Earth image of Apamea dated 31st December 2004.

Google Earth image of Apamea dated 20th July 2011

Google Earth image of Apamea dated 4th April 2012

To find out more about using Google Earth for research of looted archaeological sites, read about the research by Dan Contreras and Neil Brodie in Peru and Jordan.