Sentence:  In the mid-fifth century B.C. Herodotus (1:131; 3.8) mentioned the importance of the cult of Al-Ilât, i.e. Allat, in ancient Arabia. Her sanctuary at <WSD>Palmyra</WSD> (Pl. XVII), excavated in the 1970s by the Polish mission, is in the neighborhood of the temple of Baal Shamin and lends a special character to the city's western quarter, in which Arab tribes settled during the second century B.C. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An ancient oasis city in the Syrian Desert, in present-day central Syria, recorded historically from around 2000 BCE, subsequently subject to various empires and destroyed in 273 CE and again in 1400, when it was reduced to a village.