An ancient, pre-Christian temple which was made famous in the 1973 horror film "The Exorcist" has reportedly fallen into the hands of Islamic militants who have taken over northern Iraq.

The worship complex, which is located at Hatra, features a vast network of 200-foot high sun-god temples and has been a Unesco world heritage site since 1985. The temple was featured in the opening moments of the classic "The Exorcist" film.

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The opening sequence of the movie shows Father Lankester Merrin uncovering a talisman which belonged to Pazuzu, an ancient Mesopotamian demon, during an archeological dig at the site.

There are fears that some of the ancient artifacts, statues in particular, could be destroyed by the ISIS jihadists, especially since the group had no qualms when it came to demolishing a statue of Othman al-Mousuli, an Iraqi musician and composer, when they took over the city of Mosul nearly 70 miles away from Hatra.

Officials did their best to guard the site and some 20 Iraqi police officers had been left to take a stand against ISIS should the militant group decide to attack the ancient area. However, all officers fled the scene after it fell to the extremist faction close to two weeks ago.

Unesco Director-General Irina Bokova released a statement last week warning that rising violence could cause Iraq's cultural heritage to be looted and destroyed, just as it was in the 2003 invasion and fall of Baghdad.

Under Saddam Hussein's rule, the site was officially closed to visitors, but when U.S. forces entered the country and were dispatched to guard the area, some of them realized the potential the ancient temple had to draw tourism into Iraq.

Reportedly, the idea came by chance when a captain serving with the 2-320 Field Artillery Regiment recognized the temple from "The Exorcist" and posed the idea to his superiors.

Later on, troops were said to have helped train guides who could offer "The Exorcist Experience" to tourists, but as violence increased in the country, the tours never came to fruition.

Tagsancient Iraqi temple, The Exorcist, ISIS, Iraq Cultural Heritage