The news of the destruction of the 12th-century Great Mosque of al-Nuri and the adjacent al-Hadba Minaret left me speechless ... No building is ever as important as the people living in a city. The loss of life is the worst news we can hear. Yet it is also heartbreaking to lose remarkable structures and the memory of those who created them. Monuments, libraries, museums, religious traditions, poetry, folk tales, and other embodiments of cultural heritage connect people to the places they live.
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