(CNN) A new hi-tech front has opened in the battle to save priceless ancient monuments under threat from ISIS.
A team of archaeologists has come up with a cheap 3-D digital camera that can capture a record of buildings and artifacts -- and they are sending thousands into hot spots in the Middle East and beyond.
Precious monuments lost in Middle East
Once the largest mosques in the world, built in the 9th century on the Tigris River north of Baghdad. The mosque is famous for the Malwiya Tower, a 52-meter minaret with spiraling ramps for worshipers to climb.
The site was bombed in 2005, in an insurgent attack on a NATO position, destroying the top of the minaret and surrounding walls.
Video: ISIS targets historical artifacts
An "oasis in the Syrian desert"
according to UNESCO, this Aramaic city has stood since the second millennium BC and featured some of the most advanced architecture of the period. The site subsequently evolved through Greco-Roman and Persian periods, providing unique historic insight into those cultures. ISIS now controls the ancient city and has
destroyed shrines, temples and monuments.
The most spectacular legacy of Buddhism in the war-torn country, among the tallest standing Buddhas in the world -- the larger at 53 meters, the other 35 -- had survived over 1,500 years since being carved out of sandstone. The Taliban considered the monuments idolatrous and
destroyed them with dynamite.
Yemen's capital city of Sanaa has seen several
suicide bombings for which ISIS claimed responsibility, and air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition -- although it is unclear who is responsible to the latest damage. These have affected both the old fortified city -- inscribed on UNESCO's
World Heritage List since 1986 -- and the archaeological site of the pre-Islamic walled city of Baraqish, causing "severe damage,"
according to UNESCO itself.
Continually inhabited for 2,500 years, and became the capital of the Romans' Arabian empire. The centerpiece is a magnificent Roman theater dating back to the second century that survived intact until the current conflict. Archaeologists have revealed the site is now severely
damaged from mortar shelling.
A world heritage site originally built in 715 by the Umayyad dynasty, ranking it among the oldest mosques in the world. The epic structure evolved through successive eras, gaining its famous minaret in the late 11th century. This was reduced to rubble in the Syrian civil war in 2013, along with serious damage to the walls and courtyard, which historians have described as the worst ever damage to Syrian heritage.
These 20-meter wide water wheels were first documented in the 5th century, representing an ingenious early irrigation system. Seventeen of the wooden norias (a machine for lifting water into an aqueduct) survived to present day and became Hama's primary tourist attraction, noted for their groaning sounds as they turned. Heritage experts
documented several wheels being burned by fighters in 2014.
The fortress spans at least four millennia, from the days of Alexander the Great, through Roman, Mongol, and Ottoman rule. The site has barely changed since the 16th century and is one of Syria's most popular World Heritage sites. The citadel has been used as an army base in recent fighting and several of its historic buildings
have been destroyed.
The covered markets in the Old City are a famous trade center for the region's finest produce, with dedicated sub-souks for fabrics, food, or accessories. The tunnels became the scene of fierce fighting and many of the oldest are
now damaged beyond recognition, which Unesco has
described as a tragedy.
This French-built suspension bridge was a popular pedestrian crossing and vantage point for its views of the Euphrates River. It became a key supply line in a battle for the city, and
collapsed under shelling. Deir Ez-zor's Siyasiyeh Bridge was also destroyed.
The
ancient Assyrian city around Nineveh Province, Iraq was home to countless treasures of the empire, including statues, monuments and jewels. Following the 2003 invasion the site
has been devastated by looting, with many of the stolen pieces finding homes in museums abroad.
The Crusader castle from the 11th century survived centuries of battles and natural disasters, becoming a World Heritage site in 2006 along with the adjacent castle of Qal'at Salah El-Din. The walls were severely damaged by
regime airstrikes and artillery in 2013, and rebels took positions within it.
The purported resting place of biblical prophet Jonah, along with a tooth believed to be from the whale that consumed him. The site dated to the 8th century BC, and was of great importance to Christian and Muslim faiths. It was
entirely blown up by ISIS militants in 2014 as part of their campaign against perceived apostasy.
Among Syria's most famous Ottoman-style mosques, which also shows
Mamluk influence through its light and dark contrasts. The vast site became a hub of the battle for Homs, itself a front-line of the conflict. The sacred mausoleum has
been completely destroyed, and much of the interiors burned.
A key city for the Greeks and Romans, established in 630 BC. Famed as the basis for enduring myths and legends, such as that of the huntress heroine of the same name and bride of Apollo. The ruins were some of the best preserved from that period, but in the wake of Libya's revolution,
vast tracts have been bulldozed including its unique necropolis complex.
Home to one of the world's most impressive collections, with over 100,000 pieces that cover the entirety of Islamic history. The Cairo site was first built in 1881, the museum recently underwent an eight-year multi-million dollar renovation. Shortly after re-opening, a car bomb targeting a nearby police building
caused catastrophic damage and forced the museum to close again.
This 121-year-old wooden building, humble but elegant, was home to the nation's first governor general Muhammed Ali Jinnah for the last phase of his life. The residency
was attacked with rocket fire by a separatist group in 2013, and almost completely demolished. A new structure is being built on the site.
A 15-year civil war of incredible brutality, successive battles with Israel, and sweeping urban development has robbed the 'Paris of the Middle East' of much of its visual lustre. Once known for its landscape of swaggering Ottoman, French and Art Deco architecture, officials say just 400 of 1200 protected historic buildings remain.
Before-and-after photographs of the destruction. The US and ISIS trade blame for
its loss.
They are enlisting the help of locals who live near monuments to snap the images, which could allow them to build replicas if they were destroyed.
"People in Syria have exactly the same cultural history as we do in New York and Boston," says Roger Michel, executive director of The Institute for Digital Archaeology, a joint venture between Harvard and Oxford Universities, which has come up with the project, "and if that gets wiped out by the sands of the desert, that's going to be a significant thing."
The institute has been working on the project for around five years, but kicked it into action early because of the rapid rate of destruction of priceless objects by ISIS.
Militants recently blew up the nearly 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin in Palmyra, Syria, an act that United Nations cultural organization UNESCO called a "war crime."
A week earlier, Khaled al-As'ad, the 82-year-old former general manager for antiquities and museums in Palmyra was publicly beheaded by ISIS.
During the group's brutal and seemingly unstoppable rampage of destruction this year, militants also bulldozed the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud and took sledgehammers to statues in Mosul Museum.
ISIS propaganda claims they are destroying idols or false gods.
Rebuilding destruction
The 3-D images of buildings and artifacts could in future be used to build replicas of destroyed monuments, perhaps using 3-D printers, Michel says.
The database would also provide a powerful forensic tool for investigators -- like the FBI, which recently asked art collectors to be on the lookout for plundered antiquities -- to identify objects that have been looted by ISIS and sold into the international art market.
"Anything (ISIS) can carry away, they sell it to middlemen in Turkey and other places who are then planning down the road to pretend that some 19th century tweed-wearing gentleman archaeologist pulled these things out of Syria when he was there in 1870.
"If we have photographs of these objects in Nimrud in 2015 with GPS and time and date data stamped on them, then those objects are going to be forever unsaleable," Michel adds.
3-D camera for as little as $27
Alexy Karenowska, a physicist at the University of Oxford, designed the camera.
She describes it as "robust and relatively simple to operate" and costing around $27 in bulk production.
"The digital technology and optics that goes into these cameras is remarkably cheap," says Karenowska. "We are capitalizing on the exponential development of digital camera technology over the past few years."
They are aiming to hand out 5,000 cameras by December this year, all equipped with lots of storage cards and batteries that can be removed and replaced.
One of the major challenges has been getting the cameras into the field.
The institute has partnered with big NGOs like UNESCO who are distributing the bulk of the cameras -- the rest are going to hyperlocal networks of people working on the ground.
"They are people in local antiquary societies, local museum curators, they are embedded archaeologists, they are people just like the poor fellow who was killed in Palmyra, Mr. al-As'ad, the people that are passionate about preserving their local heritage," says Michel.
Many of the cameras will be driven in in glove boxes in cars, he adds.
Both Karenowska and Michel say keeping their operatives in the field safe is the priority.
The cameras have been designed to "not look like anything special in the event that someone were to be arrested or questioned or seized," says Michel.
But, adds, Karenowska: "The reality is that people are in and around the sites all the time, they know the territory and, I suppose, there is a quantifiable risk to everyday life there but. ... We are asking locals, those who know best, to make the call."
Secrecy: An important weapon
Alongside UNESCO, the institute is compiling a hit list of monuments most at risk, which should be mapped first.
Because of the sensitive nature of the project, Karenowska is unwilling to share the names of specific monuments or locations.
"The aim is to stop our hit list becoming (ISIS') hit list. Secrecy is an important weapon," she says
Syria is one of the areas the team is looking at very closely, she added.
The project, which has an annual budget of $2.3 million, hopes to have 1 million 3-D images in the database by the end of 2016.
After that, says Michel, "we'll have to see what course the war takes, at the rate these objects are being carted off and destroyed there will not be much left to photograph."