The Ancient Roman Temple at Baalbek

The temple complex of Baalbek lies around 86,000 meters to the northeast of Beirut, Lebanon. These ruins are considered by many, to be the most enigmatic and holiest of holy places that existed during the ancient times. The Romans conquered the site much later; and the Phoenicians constructed this elaborate temple dedicated to Baal at a later stage. Before all of this, however, there was at a Baal, what could be dubbed as the ‘largest ever stone block construction’ of the world.

Who was Baal?

The origin of the name – ‘Baalbek’ – has also been shrouded with its own share of mysteries. There are a couple of opposing schools of thought that claim different things about the name of this historical site. The Phoenixes used the term Baal to refer to their sky deity, who was fervently worshipped during the ancient times, throughout the stretch of what is today called the Middle East.

Others, however, claim that the name of this site was derived from the ‘God of the Bekaa Valley’. Yet others suggest that this site must have been the birthplace of Baal; and hence, the name.

During Roman Times –

During the Roman periods, this area began to be known as ‘Heliopolis’, which means ‘City of the Sun’. The central deity of this shrine then became the sun god Jupiter. Earlier Roman texts would have placed importance on Zeus as being the whole and soul of the Greek pantheon; but Jupiter was (arguably) given the pedestal later. Jupiter replaced, at Baalbek, the ancient Phoenician God Baal.

Theories about the Site -

The mainstream archaeological community has a number of theories that it states with relation to this ancient Lebanon site. The history of this site is said to date back to approximately 5000 years. A number of excavations that have been carried out have uncovered what might be traces of settlements from the Middle Bronze Age. These further seem to have been built atop human settlements dating back to the Early Bronze Age.

Some scholars also claim that this site may have found mention in Biblical passages as well. In I Kings IX: 17 – 19, it says that King Solomon built Gezer and Beth-Horon, and Baalath and Tadmor. All of these were in the wilderness. According to some scholars, Baalath could be equated to the ancient Baal temple that stood here in Lebanon.

The Stones that Baffle –

The biggest mystery of the ancient world, perhaps, is that of the massive foundation of stones that lie beneath the Roman temple of Jupiter.  The courtyard of this temple is situated atop a platform, which is dubbed as the ‘Grand Terrace’. This consists of a rather huge outer wall, which is filled with massive stones.

The finely crafted blocks also seem to come across as being precisely positioned, which has for decades now, baffled experts. Each block will be somewhere around 30 odd feet in length and around 14 feet in height. They are known to weigh around 450 tons each.

On the west side lie even larger stones which are called the Trilithon. They are almost 1000 tons in weight, each; and are around 65 x 14 feet in measure.

What baffles scholars till today is how the quarrying was and transportation of such massive stone blocks carried out at that time, when it may even not be possible today, in spite of our technological advancement.  Baffling, but true!