Ras Ibn Hani:

10 km north of Latakia; it was dug from 1975 to 1982 by a Franco-Syrian mission. The site complements Ugarit/Minet al-Beida, continuing the chronological sequence from the end of the Bronze Age until the Byzantine period (13^th century BC to 6^th century AD).

It was founded by a King of Ugarit, probably to survey maritime access to the main port but also to provide a cooler summer residence. The palace area is in total larger than the main palace at Ugarit, covering over 8000 m². Ras Ibn Hani sheds some light in the otherwise obscure period after the great invasion and reveals a resumption of indigenous Syrian influences, reversing the heavily Mycenaean links of the LBA.

The fortress was razed but the site again fell into the hands of the Ptolemies under Antiochus IX (ruled 115 – 95 BC) and a small fortress was erected in the south eastern corner of the ruined compound. The last significant occupation was during the 4^th to 6^th centuries AD.