Khaled al-Asaad: The Man Who Wouldn’t Betray Palmyra For decades, Syrian archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad was one of Palmyra’s most devoted guardians. The desert city—famous for its colonnades, temples, and funerary towers—was not just a research site to him. It was a living archive of human history, and he spent much of his life excavating, documenting, and helping restore its remains. When ISIS captured Palmyra in May 2015, the threat was not only to people, but to memory itself. Militant groups