Khaled al-Asaad profile: the Howard Carter of Palmyra

The historian beheaded by Isis was a key figure in Syrian archaeology and has been compared with the discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt

Khaled al-Asaad, the Syrian scholar murdered by Isis, was one of the most important pioneers in Syrian archaeology in the 20th century and a man who devoted his life to promoting and protecting his home town of Palmyra.

"He was a fixture, you can't write about Palmyra's history or anything to do with Palmyrian work without mentioning Khaled Asaad," said Amr al-Azm, a former Syrian antiquities official who ran the country's science and conservation labs and knew Asaad personally.