Mysterious 10,000-year-old ancient ruins found in Syrian desert

 July 3, 2012 - A mystery city lies in Syria’s deserts, one older than the pyramids -- but the war-torn location is stopping archaeologists from decoding its riddles.

Fragments of stone tools, stone circles and lines on the ground, and even evidence of tombs seem to lie in the desert near the ancient monastery of Deir Mar Musa, 50 miles north of Damascus, archaeologist Robert Mason of the Royal Ontario Museum stated. He likened the formations to “Syria’s Stonehenge.”
“What it looked like was a landscape for the dead and not for the living,” Mason mentioned Wednesday in the course of a presentation at Harvard University’s Semitic Museum, according to the University publication the Harvard Gazette.

He made the find throughout a 2009 trip and is eager to return and further explore the site. But he says regional conflicts make such a return trip practically impossible.

“It’s something that requirements a lot more work and I don’t know if that’s ever going to come about.”

'What it looked like was a landscape for the dead and not for the living.'- Archaeologist Robert Mason

The monastery itself, also called the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian, was built in the late 4th or early 5th century, he stated, and consists of numerous frescoes from the 11th and 12th century depicting Christian saints and Judgment Day. He told the audience at Harvard that he believes it was originally a Roman watchtower, partially destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt.

But the desert puzzle is much older.

Bits of tools Mason found nearby recommend the mystery he discovered in the desert is considerably older than the monastery. It may date to the Neolithic Period or early Bronze Age, 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, the Gazette mentioned.

Egypt’s oldest pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Giza, was built about 4,500 years ago.

Mason also saw corral-like stone formations called “desert kites,” which would have been used to trap gazelles and other animals. The desert around the monastery is hardly a verdant pasture -- “very scenic, if you like rocks,” Mason reportedly mentioned -- but was probably greener a couple of millennia ago, the archaeologist explained.

Like Indiana Jones exploring Italy’s museums in “The Last Crusade,” Mason hopes to return to the monastery to excavate beneath the church’s principal altar -- he believes he’ll find an entrance to underground tombs there.

He also hopes to return to strange stone formations he identified in the desert, which he dubbed “Syria’s Stonehenge.

Read more: http://www.disclose.tv/news/Mysterious_10000yearold_ancient_ruins_found_in_Syrian_desert/85485#ixzz206JEBo1z