Prince's Palace of Monaco Prince's Palace of Monaco The Prince's Palace of Monaco is the official residence of the Sovereign Prince of Monaco. Built in 1191 as a Genoese fortress, during its long and often dramatic history it has been bombarded and besieged by many foreign powers. Since the end of the 13th century, it has been the stronghold and home of the Grimaldi family who first captured it in 1297. The Grimaldi ruled the area first as feudal lords, and from the 17th century as sovereign princes, but their power was often derived from fragile agreements with their larger and stronger neighbours. Thus
Royal family of Emesa Royal family of Emesa The Emesene dynasty, also called "the Emesani dynasty", "the Sempsigerami of Emesa" or "the Sampsiceramids", were a ruling Roman client dynasty of priest-kings in Emesa, Syria Province (modern Homs, Syria). Iamblichus, the famous Neoplatonist philosopher of the Third century, was one of their descendants. Emesa was famous for the worship of the strong ancient pagan cult "El-Gebal", also known as "Elagabal". The city was renowned for El-Gebal’s place of worship the "Temple of the Sun". El-Gebal was worshipped in the form of a conical black stone. El-Gebal was the Aramaic name for the Syrian Sun God