French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon
In 1929, Henri Arnold Seyrig, the general director of antiquities in the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, started excavating the ruins of Palmyra and forcibly displaced the villagers to a government-built village, adjacent to the ancient site. The relocation was completed in 1932, making the ancient city of Palmyra ready for excavations, while the residents settled in the new village of the same name.