Just south of Aleppo is Tell Mardikh, the site of the ancient city-state of Ebla. Ebla was a powerful trading city that dominated northern Syria in the latter half of the third millennium B.C.E. Excavations there uncovered the remains of a temple dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Also discovered was a royal palace whose archive rooms yielded some 17,000 clay tablets. Artifacts from Ebla can be seen in the museum of Idlib, a small town 15 miles [25 km] from the site.

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Royal palace, Ebla