Business Listing of Baalbek Ancient Ruins
Baalbek Ancient Ruins
Country: Lebanon
Offers photographs and history information about Baalbeks ancient ruins and temples.
At the age of nine I visited the colossal ruins at Baalbek, the biggest temples ever built by the Romans. Some of the photos included here were taken by my father in 1972. The ruins of Baalbek are situated in the Bekaa Valley, 85 kilometers from Beirut. The exact date of its foundations are unknown. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Canaan, to which Baalbek is closely associated, was translated into Greek as Phoenicia, from phoenix:Canaan which anciently comprised Lebanon and Syria was translated into Greek as Phoenicia ?from phoenix- presumably to reflect the endurance and the survival of the Canaanites through the domination of the various invaders (the Amorites, the Hyksos, the Egyptians, the Assyrians etc).The phoenix is a mythical bird, fabled to live for five or six hundred years, after which it burnt itself to ashes, and emerged from it?s ashes with renewed youth, to live through another cycle of years. Thence an emblem of immortality and resurrection.To the Canaanites Baal was it?s sacred city, the equivalent of Lhasa to Buddhists, Jerusalem to Christians, Mecca to Muslims.The original cave shrines of the Canaanites leave no recognizable remains, new sanctuaries having been traditionally built over previous sacred sites.Biblical era:The bible makes no specific mention of Baalbek although there are many references to the cult of Baal. None of the biblical sites such as lt; lt;Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon gt;. Or the lt; lt;vineyard at Baal-Hamon gt; gt; could be identified definitely with Baalbek. As to Baalath (1 Kings, ix: 17-19) lt; lt;and Solomon built ? Baalath and Tadmor (Palmyra) in the wilderness gt; gt;. We know that Solomon?s Kingdom stretched from Gaza to the shores of the Euphrates, (1 Kings, iv: 21-14) and the Baalath above could well be Baalbek except for two non applicable claims. 1) Baalbek is situated in one of the largest and most fertile valleys in the Middle East, and on one of the main trade routes of the Fertile Crescent; therefore it definitely is not in the wilderness. 2) Baalbek has been in existence long before Solomon?s days, therefore the Bible might have meant some other Baalath that Solomon might have built somewhere in the wilderness.In the Hellenistic age (334-64 B.C.)When Alexander the Great conquered the Near East in 334 Baalbek was renamed Heliopolis. On his death The Bekaa including Baalbek came under the rule of Ptolemy. In 200 B.C. it was taken over by Antiochus the Great. Tigranes the Great of Armenia came in 86 B.C. In the Roman era (66 B.C.-A.D. 306):When Julius Caesar visited Baalbek in B.C. 47 (then Heliopolis) he granted it the status of Roman colony and issued coins to commemorate the event, see below:Me, barely noticeable by the foremost of the remaining giant columns of the temple of Jupiter.My brother in the Third Forecourt.Above, the cover of Michel Harrizs book A Story in Stone: Baalbek, published 1972. Harriz is a native of Baalbek, Lebanon.It is now out of print. I have ref
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