Qalaat Samaan (St. Simeon’s Monastery and the Dead Cities) - Syrian Journal - page 27

Hittite temple of Ayn Dara (15 th century BC)
Our next stop on a day full of amazing sights was to visit the ancient archeological remains
of a 15 th century BC Hittite temple dedicated to the gods of the mountain. Apart from the
suggestive grass covered mounds, there was not much to see apart from two basalt statues.
The above statue appeared to be Sphinx-like and was carved from black basalt rock. There
are vast, unexcavated Hittite remains under the hills across Syria. The statue below is one
of a lion. It is interesting and encouraging that it was standing upright when we visited it,
as I have a photo of it from the topic “Syria: Cradle of Civilisations”, which was published
in 1996 in which the same statue is lying on its side.