200 x 200 meters) held mud-brick houses among the ruins, and served as a fortified citadel for the village of Palmyra (known as Tadmur during the 1100s).

The cella was entirely surrounded by a prostyle of Corinthian columns, only interrupted on the long side by an entrance gate with large steps leading from the court.

The cella was unique in the fact that it had two inner sanctuaries, the north and south adytons, dedicated as the shrines of Bel and other local deities.

Syria's Director of Antiquities Maamoun Abdul Karim stated that ISIL was looking for treasures and "stores of gold" in the city.

[14] On 30 August 2015, the Associated Press reported that ISIS had partially demolished the temple by explosives, citing eyewitness accounts.

[19] Syria's antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim later stated that although there was an explosion within the temple's perimeter, "the basic structure is still standing".

On August 31, 2015 the United Nations confirmed the temple's destruction after reviewing satellite imagery, "We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity" reported by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

[28] In July 2017, the French company "Art Graphique et Patrimoine" travelled to Palmyra and scanned the Temple's rubble in order to create a plan for its restoration.

Wissam Wahbeh and Stephen Nebiker, Researchers at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland demonstrated this capability, created a 3D model using tourist images along with proprietary data held by photogrammetry pioneer Gabriele Fangi.

[31] A comprehensive version, featuring full resolution reconstructions of reliefs, frescoes, and finely detailed decorative features, along with the raw data, was later published by UC San Diego Data Scientist Scott McAvoy[32] in the hopes of encouraging continued collaboration informing future reconstruction efforts.