The Emesa reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Emesa

Emesa was a city in Syria during Roman times.

It had a temple to the Syrian sun god El Gebal (Aramaic), also called Elagabalus (Latin) and Heliogabalus (Greek). It was the birth-place of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known as Heliogabalus, who was a hereditary priest of the his namesake deity. It was also Roman Emperor Aurelian's headquarter during his campaign against Queen Zenobia of Palmyra.

It is called Homs or Hims today.

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