A new genetic study has revealed that the modern day population of the Levant migrated from Europe around 12,000 years ago, and not - as originally thought - from Africa with the rest of the Homo Sapiens.

Pierre Zalloua, a geneticist and Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Lebanese American University, led the study.

"We now know that we, in the Levant, migrated through the north around 12,000 years ago, and not directly from Africa," Zalloua said.