Baalbek

Towering high over the plains of the Bekaa Valley, the sheer scale and monumental proportions of the UNESCO-listed ruins at Baalbek never cease to impress. The temples are considered one of the most important Roman sites in the world and were dedicated to the triad of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury.

Following the conquest by Alexander the Great, Baalbek was renamed Heliopolis (City of the Sun) and quickly grew into an important settlement in the region. The Romans founded a major military colony here. They built the gargantuan temples with the intention of impressing the local population with the might of Imperial Rome, in an attempt to counter the rising popularity of Christianity. The site is entered via a monumental stairway before moving through the Propylaea and two impressive marble courtyards to the Temple of Jupiter – one of the largest temples ever built. This immense structure consisted of a cella in which the cult image of Jupiter Heliopolitanus was housed, surrounded by a portico featuring 54 massive external columns. Six of these giants still stand. They are the largest Roman columns in the world, measuring over 22m high with a circumference of 2.2m.

To the south, the so-called Temple of Bacchus is a most beautifully decorated Roman temple. The building is in a good state of preservation and, while small compared to the temple of Jupiter, is still larger than the Parthenon in Athens. A further remarkable and well-preserved structure is the Round Temple, which is thought to have been dedicated to the goddess Fortuna and was later converted into a church by the Byzantines. Baalbek’s quarries lie south of the Acropolis and contain one of the biggest hand-hewn stones ever quarried. Called the Stone of the Pregnant Woman, it is approximately 21.5m long x 4.2m high x 4m-5m wide in size and weighs an estimated 1,000 tonnes!