A city filled with ancient ruins was recaptured from ISIS. Here's what it looks like now.
Earlier this week, the Syrian army drove ISIS out of the city of Palmyra, which contains a spectacular set of ancient structures dating back nearly 2,000 years.
Palmyra after its recapture by the Syrian army. Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site was first captured by the militant group in May 2015.
These striking images, captured by photographer Maher al Mounes after the battle, show what remains of the historic site after nearly a year of ISIS occupation. The militant group has destroyed many monuments across Iraq and Syria that it considers blasphemous to its hard-line version of Islam.
Unsurprisingly, there's a fair bit of bad news — but also a lot of good.
ISIS initially promised it would level any parts of Palmyra that it deemed as promoting idolatry, but miraculously much of the old city is still standing.
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
That includes the city's citadel, which was the site of some of the fighting.
Photo by Stringer/AFP/Getty Images.
And these columns, lining a Roman-era street.
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
This stunning amphitheater remains largely intact.
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
Its magnificent entryway was, thankfully, spared as well.
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
Unfortunately, this entryway is all that remains of the Temple of Bel, a pre-Islamic house of worship from the first century AD, that ISIS leveled in September 2015.
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
The city's famous Triumphal Arch (Arc de Triomphe), which straddled a road that dates back to the Roman Empire, was also destroyed by the militant group.
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
While we celebrate the recapture — and mourn the loss — of the ancient city, it's important to note that this is what modern-day Palmyra and the towns surrounding it look like after 10 months of occupation and fighting:
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
According to NPR, most of the city's residents fled when it was overrun by ISIS last year. The rest were either killed or moved with ISIS deeper into its territory.
A U.N. analysis found that 11,000 people were displaced by the initial invasion, many of whom were forced to take shelter in neighboring towns.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, a staggering 4.8 million people have fled the country.
In the coming months, archeologists plan to assess the damage to the ancient city and see what can be restored.
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
Much of the historic site may be rebuilt, in time. Syrian director of antiquities Maamoun Abdelkarim recently told The Guardian that he believes his team has more than enough images and materials to reconstruct the city's temples.
Reversing the damage is going to take time, effort, and money — but many are joining the cause.
In addition to the Syrian government's efforts, groups around the world are pitching in. A Boston-based group of researchers has launched an international effort to build a master list of sites that are most at-risk and are soliciting donations to help fund their intervention.
And UNESCO has launched an awareness campaign to draw attention to the threat to Syria's major historic landmarks.
These are critically important steps. But all the awareness in the world could easily be for naught without an end to the violence in Syria.
Photo by Maher al Mounes/Getty Images.
Not just for its people, but its history as well.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.