The Assyrian empire's brutal methods of conquest and torture were immortalized in the walls of their palaces, serving as a warning to their enemies and subjects. However, this also raises questions about the society that created and celebrated these atrocities.
The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia believed that intellectuals were a threat to their new world, and as a result, they wiped out Cambodia's intellectual class. However, they did not take photos as they did not want to publicize their actions.
King Nabonidus boasts of his complete destruction of the city of Babylon in the 6th century BCE, using floods of water to erase all traces of the city, and dumping the temple towers into the Eratu Canal.