Part of the Conflict and Cultural Heritage Conference. Theme 1: What is happening? The significance of sites at risk, and the current situation. With Dr Ross Burns. Why have monuments that have survived millennia of conflict, earthquakes and the pressures of changing patterns of settlement, suddenly become not just incidental targets but pawns in a new type of conflict? The dimensions of the problem are looked at from the perspective of two centres with some overall conclusions on what has been lost in Syria as a whole. While the risks can only be resolved by an overall settlement of the conflict, what can those outside who care about the country and its past do in the meantime? Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/