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If they’d stop killing one another over there it could be an archaeological smorgasbord.

So true. There are so many great pre-Islamic archaeological sites. Turkey is full of them, Iran's got the tomb of Cyrus the Great among other sites, Iraq has the remains of Uruk, the first city built by mankind, Jordan has Petra and Roman remains such as Jarash, Syria's got some as well (Damascus and Aleppo are some of the oldest continually-inhabited cities in the world), the emirate of Fujayrah in the UAE is supposed to have many pre-Islamic artifacts buried beneath it, the island of Sir Bani Yas of the coast of Abu Dhabi has Nestorian Christian monestaries (Bahrain may have some also, because before Islam Nestorians lived there), in Yemen you can find tablets and walls inscribed with old the North Arabian language, and of course there is Bethlehem and the other Biblical cities. To name a few examples....

(Damascus and Aleppo are some of the oldest continually-inhabited cities in the world),

Not continuous. Just a little note for the next time you hear someone start rambling on about the "Oracle of Damascus":

In 733 BC his armies conquered Philistia on the Mediterranean coast, destroyed Damascus (732) and occupied most of Israel (732), with its northern regions becoming Assyrian provinces.