The recapture of Syria's ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State has brought new revelations of the destruction wreaked by the extremists.
Experts say they need time to assess the full extent of damage in Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site boasting 2,000-year-old Roman-era colonnades and other ruins, which once attracted tens of thousands of tourists every year.
Syrian troops drove IS out on Sunday, some 10 months after the militants seized the town.
The world knew the militants destroyed the Temple of Bel, which dated back to AD 32, the Temple of Baalshamin, which was several stories high and fronted by six towering columns, and the Arch of Triumph, which was built under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus between AD 193 and AD 211.
But no one knew the extent of the damage inside the museum until a Syrian TV reporter found the floor littered with shattered statues.
Some of the damage may have been caused by shelling, which would have knocked the statues from their stands.
The footage from inside the museum shows a hole in the ceiling, most likely from an artillery shell.
Unlike in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where IS militants filmed themselves proudly destroying ancient artefacts, no militant video was released from Palmyra's museum.
Before Palmyra fell to IS, authorities relocated more than 400 statues and hundreds of artefacts to safe areas, but larger statues couldn't be moved, according to the head of antiquities and museums, Maamoun Abdul-Karim.
He told the AP that about 20 statues were defaced and others had their heads chopped off.
Abdul-Karim was relieved that many of the statues had only been disfigured and not demolished.
Amr al-Azm, a former Syrian antiquities official, said the level of destruction was more significant than thought.
Smashing up statues' faces "means that there is nothing left," he added.
IS claims ancient relics promote idolatry, but it is also believed to have profited from looted antiquities.
That may explain why the militants killed the archaeological site's 81-year-old director, Khaled al-Asaad, beheading him last August after he reportedly refused to say where some of the town's treasures were hidden.
