Visit the sacred Roman Temples in Lebanon

Located on the east of the Litani river, Baalbek is a town in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon. This region is famous for its beautiful roman temples. Back then when the Romans were in power, this region was called Heliopolis.

Also known to be one of the holiest of places during ancient times. The story of Baalbek (according to an archaeological theory) goes way beyond five thousand years ago. The Phoenicians decided to construct a temple to their sun god – Baal; in Baalbek. This is because; according to legends, this region was the birthplace of the sun god Baal. Later on when the Romans came to the region, they made even more temples for Baal.

The city of Baalbek is dedicated to the sun god Jupiter. This place has the largest stones structures that the Romans built. The Romans however, could not complete building it, as they lacked the necessary technology and engineering capabilities to carve and place the huge stones under their constructions. Apart from the temple that was creation for Baal, another two temples were constructed as well. One for Venus and the other one for Bacchus. There were initially fifty-four columns on in the Jupiter temple. The earthquake in the early twentieth century reduced the only nine remaining columns to about six. Roman constructions involved placing one structure on top of the other.

The Romans constructed a large outer wall and crafted it finely. The stones here vary in weight from about four hundred and fifty tons to twelve hundred tons. These are the largest crafted stones used for construction; in the whole world. Jupiter- Baal was represented here as a beardless god wearing drapes with a whip and thunderbolts in his hands. The statue of Zeus bore busts of seven planetary powers on the front of the pillar. Later on, few other Emperors added to the earlier constructed temples and statues. Nero built a tower alter opposite the temple of Jupiter. Emperor Trajan added a forecourt to the same temple. The white granite was brought in from Egypt. Emperor Philip was the last to add to the temple. He constructed a hexagonal forecourt.

Even contemporary builders are baffled by how they could logistically manage using these stones for building. As moving them and transporting them would be impossible. Baalbek is considered to be an epitome of Imperial Roman architecture. Its is been listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. Various theories have been made on how the megalithic stones were moved from the quarry to the construction site. One of those theories are that, these huge stones were mounted on wooden or metal rollers and transported over in short distances.