- ... that the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut (pictured) is the third oldest museum in the Near East?
- ... that the prehistoric Neolithic Tell Ramad, located 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Damascus in Syria, is considered one of the few sites fundamental to our understanding of the origin of agriculture?
- ... that the archaeological site of Tell Bazmusian in Iraq was flooded by Lake Dukan?
- ...that ostracoderms are the earliest known vertebrate animals?
- ... that the limestone quarries near Ein Yabrud in the Judean Mountains have produced the only fossils for the extinct snakes Pachyrhachis and Haasiophis?