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The site of Ain Dara is located in the very north of Syria, close to the border with Turkey. The site consists of a temple located on a small rise overlooking the surrounding fields. The temple dates to the Iron Age, c. 1000 BC. Due to its architectural features, archaeologists place Ain Dara alongside other sites called Neo-Hittite, or 'New Hittite'. By 1000 BC the great Hittite centres of the Anatolian Plateau have collapsed, but in this region of northern Syria and southern Turkey, the Hittites appear to live on, albeit in much smaller settlements. It is not known if these sites received Hittite refugees following the collapse of the Hittite heartland or if they were local people carrying on the Hittite traditions that had dominated their region for centuries.
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