Indeed one well-known monument site, known as Eflatun Pinar, holds a sacred pool that "is fed by a spring beneath the pool itself, " write Yigit Erbil and Alice Mouton in an article that was published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

MSN: Ancient life-size lion statues baffle scientists

Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies and associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oklahoma, said Alawites live "cheek by jowl" near Sunnis in Homs, Hama and Idlib province in the west.

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