Between 1737 and 1742 , Richard Pococke , an English anthropologist , toured the Middle East and wrote of what he thought was ruins of defensive walls built with 3 @.@ 7 @-@ metre ( 12 ft ) stone blocks near the Awali river . When the French orientalist Ernest Renan visited the area in 1860 , he noticed that the Awali bridge abutments was built of finely rusticated blocks that originated from an earlier structure . He also noted in his report , Mission de Phénicie , that a local treasure hunter told him of a large edifice near the Awali bridge .