In 1928 a Syrian peasant farmer stumbled by chance onto a funerary vault of ancient provenance about half a mile from the Mediterranean coastline of Syria and about six miles north of the modern-day city of Latakia. This unforeseen discovery led to an archaeological excavation ofTell Ras Shamra (Cape Fennel) by the eminent French excavator Claude Schaeffer. What Schaeffer\u27s team unearthed was not merely an ancient tomb, but a city complete with palaces, private homes, temples, and streets paved with stone
