being carefully reconstructed as the National Museum's main entrance. The process took several years and the official opening was celebrated in 1950. By time, new halls and wings were added to the museum as its collection grew. In 1953, a three-storey wing was added to display more exhibits of the Islamic period, as well as contemporary Syrian art. In 1963, a new lecture hall and a library were added. This lecture hall was furnished as a 19th-century Ottoman-era Damascene reception hall, lavishly decorated and ornamented, as most Damascene palaces of that time. Later additions were made in 1974 to house exhibits from the Paleolithic period. The most recent addition took place in 2004, when the temporary exhibition wing was reworked to display Neolithic antiquities. Exhibits Some of the museum's unique exhibits are the restored wall paintings of the Dura Europos Synagogue from the 3rd century AD, the hypogeum of Yarhai from Palmyra, dating to 108 AD and the façade and frescoes of the Umayyad period Qasr Al-Heer Al-Gharbi, which dates back to the 8th century and lies 80 km south of Palmyra. Many other important historical artifacts can be found in various wings; such as the world's first alphabet from Ugarit and many Roman era mosaics. The exhibits are organised into 5 wings: Prehistoric Age Remains and skeletons from different Stone-Age periods, most notably the neolithic period, as well as objects and finds discovered in the basin of the Orontes River, the Euphrates and at Tell Ramad in southwestern Syria. Ancient Syria Among other exhibits, there are tablets, cylinder seals and amulets from ancient sites such as Ebla, Mari, Ugarit and sculptures from Tell Halaf. The most important of these is an Ugaritan cuneiform tablet, presenting the world's oldest existing alphabet. The museum also houses the oldest known substantially complete piece of notated music. Greek and Roman/Byzantine (classical) Age This wing contains many classical Syrian artifacts. The displays include sculptures, marble and stone sarcophagi, mosaics, jewelry and coinage from the Seleucid, Roman and Byzantine periods. The findings are from sites such as Palmyra, Dura Europos, Mount Druze, and more, and most notably include many beautiful Byzantine era manuscripts and jewelry, as well as stone work, silk and cotton textiles from Palmyra, preserved by the desert sands. Among the most important exhibits from the classical era counts the 3rd century underground Palmyrene tomb, the Hypogeum of Yarhai, considered one of the