On Wednesday, the Syrian town of Palmyra was captured by ISIS militants. In fulfillment of the old addage “nature abhors a vacuum”, evil filled the space left by the ongoing Syrian civil war and lack of leadership in the area. The fall of Palmyra comes after the fall of Ramadi in neighboring Iraq and has raised concern among academics across the world who fear that ISIS will destroy a well preserved  2,000 year old Roman era settlement on the outskirts of the city.