At the end of May 2003, it finally became clear how badly the sites were looted when a trip sponsored by National Geographic went out to assess the damage.[29] There was a northern and southern team to assess the post-conflict damage by land.[29] They found the famous sites such as Babylon, Hatra, Nimrud and Ur were under US military control.[29] Lesser known sites were completely unguarded and the responsible Civil Affairs teams didn't even know where they were.[29] Every place the National Geographic team saw, except one that was guarded by barbed wire, had been damaged.[29]