![Iraqis perform a traditional dance during a February 24 ceremony to unveil restored sculptures that were vandalised by ISIS in the ancient city of Hatra south of Mosul. [Zaid al-Obeidi/AFP]](/cnmi_am/images/2022/02/28/34188-hatra-restoration-700_496.webp)
HATRA -- Iraq unveiled three monumental sculptures in the ancient city of Hatra Thursday (February 24), newly restored after militants of the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) vandalised them during their brief but brutal rule.
The extremists released video footage in 2015 of their wanton destruction at Hatra in which they took guns and pickaxes to the once extensive remains of what was one of the leading trade entrepots between the Roman and Parthian empires in the first and second centuries CE.
A Roman-style sculpture of a life-size figure and a series of reliefs of faces on the side of the great temple were among the restored pieces shown off to journalists.
"ISIS destroyed everything that was important in this city," senior antiquities official Ali Obeid Sholgham told AFP.
![A picture taken on February 24 shows a view of a restored sculpture, which that was vandalised by ISIS in 2015, during an unveiling ceremony in the ancient city of Hatra south of Mosul. [Zaid al-Obeidi/AFP]](/cnmi_am/images/2022/02/28/34189-hatra-sculpture-700_496.webp)
A picture taken on February 24 shows a view of a restored sculpture, which that was vandalised by ISIS in 2015, during an unveiling ceremony in the ancient city of Hatra south of Mosul. [Zaid al-Obeidi/AFP]
Provincial antiquities chief Khair al-Din Ahmed Nasser said works of art were "ripped out and shattered -- we found fragments all over the site".
"We recovered some pieces. Others that were missing we replaced with the same type of stone."
The restoration work at Hatra is being carried out by Iraqi specialists in collaboration with Italy's International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies with funding from the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas.
ISIS filmed similar acts of destruction by its militants in Mosul museum, 100km northeast of Hatra, and in Palmyra in neighbouring Syria.
Iraqi government forces retook Hatra in 2017, several months before claiming victory over the extremists who swept through much of the north and west of the country three years earlier.
Cultural heritage revival
Also this month, the storied library of Mosul University, which was refurbished with United Nations financing, was set to reopen.
The library once boasted a million books before ISIS rampaged through it, toppling bookshelves and burning ancient texts.
Thousands of texts on philosophy, law, science and poetry that in some way contradicted ISIS's extremist ideology had gone up in flames.
Four floors high with a sleek glass exterior, the restored library will have an initial 32,000 books, as well as a trove of e-books.
Significant donations from Arab and international universities have enabled the revival of the library, along with donations from private collectors from across Iraq.
Mosul's religious heritage also has been the focus of reconstruction efforts.
The city's 12th-century al-Nuri mosque, known for its leaning al-Hadba minaret, is being rebuilt as part of a UN cultural agency (UNESCO) project.
And in September, a new bell -- cast in Lebanon with donations from Fraternity in Iraq, a French NGO that helps religious minorities -- was installed at the Syriac Christian church of Mar Tuma.
