BAALBEK, a town of the Beka` (Coele Syria), known to the ancients as Heliopolis, altitude 3,85oft., on the watershed sep arating the Litani (Leontes) and the `Asi (Orontes), hard against one of the lower ridges of the Antilebanon: the population is about 3,000, consisting of Christians, Mohammedans and Muta wilis in approximately equal numbers. Baalbek is now the prin cipal town in the eastern district of the State of the Great Lebanon in French mandated territory, and is the see of an Uniate Greek bishop. A river, which rises at Ras el-'Ain, one mile to the east, provides an abundant supply of good water and drives a number of mills. Since 1902 Baalbek has been connected by railway with Damascus and Beirut via Rayak, and since 1907 with Aleppo. Portions only of the wall, 2m. in circumference, which formerly enclosed the town, are still visible, but the main feature of in terest is furnished by the vast and stately temple ruins of the Roman period.
Baalbek in classical times was a centre whence roads radiated to Homs, Tripoli, Juneh, Beirut, Damascus, Sidon and Tiberias. The name has given rise to conjecture. Derivations have been suggested from Baal-Melek (Hoffmann), and Baal Beka' (Puchstein, Kittel) and identifications with Baal-Gad (Josh. xi. 17.—Thomson), Tunip of the Tell-Amarna letters (Halevy, Winckler). A recent identification is with Kar-(H)adad mentioned in a list of cities taken by Tiglath-Pileser III. in 738 B.C. (Dussaud). No doubt it was early a seat of Baal worship and as the Greeks identified Baal with Helios they called the city Heliopolis. Augustus (31 B.C.-A.D. 14) made it into a Roman colony (Julia Augusta Felix) and furnished it with a garrison, and about the close of the second century Septimius Severus be stowed upon it the ius Italicuco, a boon granted to favoured pro vincial cities. Antoninus Pius (138-161) initiated the building of a sanctuary to Jupiter Heliopolitanus (Hadad?) whose completion engaged the attention of his successors down to Caracalla (211– 217). Before Antoninus' time the gods of Baalbek were already famous and Trajan did not disdain to consult the oracle there. Two other temples were erected later, one to Bacchus (or Atar gatis?) and the other to Venus (or Fortuna?). Local representa tions of Jupiter Heliopolitanus depicted him as beardless, with scaly drapery, a whip in his right hand and lightning and ears of grain in his left, therein exhibiting a marked resemblance to the Babylonian conception of Adad. It has been a generally accepted view that Constantine (324-337) or Theodosius
con verted the Great Court of the larger temple into a church, but on fresh evidence a date as late as the 6th century has been claimed for the erection of the Christian basilica (Thiersch) . The Arabs under Abu Ubaida took possession of the town in 635 and con verted the temple area into a citadel. Baalbek was the scene of fighting between `Ali and Mu`awiya, rivals for the caliphate, in 659. El-Welid (705-715) is credited with removing the gilded dome of brass from a church in Baalbek (the Basilica?) to set over the rock in Abd el-Malik's mosque (Dome of the Rock) in Jerusalem. The city wall was demolished by Marwan II.
748) to chasten the inhabitants for joining an insurrection. Ac cording to the drab historian Makrizi (15th century), whose family and name were of Baalbek although he himself was born in Cairo, during the Carmathian occupation (loth century) the town suffered a massacre of its inhabitants at the hands of these fanatics. Damascus swayed largely Baalbek's fortunes in the r 2th century. In 1 r Io it was besieged and taken by Tughtakin, emir of Damascus, who suspected its governor of dealings with the cru saders (1 1 ro). The crusaders, indeed, raided within sight of its walls, but never took the city. Zengi, emir of Mosul, after a siege secured the surrender of its citadel on promising to spare the lives of the defenders (1139). He kept his promise by flaying the governor alive. The earthquakes which desolated Syria in the 12th century (1139, 1157, 1170) took heavy toll at Baalbek. In 1175 it surrendered to Saladin. The year 1260 marked the arrival of the Mongol Hulagu to enter in and destroy. Yet it arose from its ashes under the rule of the mameluke sultans and to the reign of the enlightened Kalawun (1277-90) its fine Muslim architecture in mosque and fortress must be mainly attributed. The town was sacked by Timur in 1400. An Arab writer of the end of the 15th century describes Baalbek as a "city possessing a strong fortress with columns erected by Solomon, mosques, schools, fine streets, baths, gardens, rivers, all which it would take too long to describe." In 1517 it passed with the rest of Syria into the possession of the Turks, whose hold, however, on the Lebanon district continued ineffective, leaving Baalbek in actuality in the hands of the Mutawilis until in the latter half of the i8th century the "Butcher" pasha. of Acre (Jezzar) laid it waste. Ibrahim Pasha, the adopted son of Mohammed 'Ali of Egypt, occupied it in 1 83 2. Baalbek returned to Turkish possession in 1840, and since the settlement of the Lebanon after the massacres there in 1860 it has attracted tourists. It has now a small French garrison.
The ruins for which Baalbek is world famous are vast and cover an enormous area. European attention was first directed to them in the 16th century by Baumgarten (15o7) and Belon du Mans (1553). The destruction of the mighty temple, one of the grandest architectural achievements of all time, was accom plished apparently by a succession of earthquakes, the havoc wrought at Baalbek by that of 1759 being within European ken. From 1 898 to 1905 a German expedition under Prof. 0. Puch stein investigated the site. (r) The Acropolis is situated to the west of the present town. Within its area are included the ruins of two temples with their extensions in side galleries and annexes (exedrae). The temples were erected on an artificial terrace formed by an understructure of vaults varying in height from 24f t. to 42ft. above the surrounding terrain. Part of the wall of enclosure on the north-west is formed of enormous blocks of stone. Three of these, built into the wall 2oft. from the ground and most accurately masoned, are each roughly 62ft. X r4ft. X rift. In each block there is said to be sufficient stone to build a square house with 6oft. frontage, 4oft. height and walls r f t. thick. A companion stone somewhat larger, shaped but not entirely de tached from its bed, can still be seen in the quarry on the outskirts of Baalbek to the south-west. Historians of Byzantine times called them Trilithon and the name passed to the acropolis. The original main approach to the temple area was on the east by a stairway 5oyd. wide, which was destroyed to make way for the moat of the Arab fortress. The German expedition reconstructed a part of it 0905). (2) Propylaea. At the head of the stairway was a vestibule, 15of t. X 36ft. flanked by square towers, with a frontage of 12 columns, of which the bases alone are left. Three of them bear inscriptions to Antoninus Pius, Julia and Caracalla respectively. (3) Forecourt. Three gateways in a richly orna mented screen provided entry to a hexagonal-shaped forecourt about r 8of t. in diameter with a peristyle. It was flanked north and south by rectangular exedrae with four columns of red gran ite at each entrance. (4) Great Court. Through a majestic door way of three bays (the northern alone remains) entrance was sought to the Great Court, which was roughly 340f t. square or with exedrae 450 feet. In it was the altar. The court was surrounded by a peristyle of 84 columns, furnishing access to richly ornamented exedrae. (5) Basilica. On the site of the Great Court there was erected by the Christians during the 4th or, as is now suggested, the 6th century a basilica comprising three naves, the central one being of double width. It was built at first facing west and the apses were built into the first landing of the flight of steps leading to the Jupiter temple. Later, when oriented east, a new apse was erected. In the course of excavation half of the imposing altar of sacrifices was discovered and on the north side of the court a long basin (piscina) used for lustration. A cor responding one on the south side was destroyed in later times to make way for liturgical baths. This installation was connected at some time or other by means of a passage with the mosque in the south-west corner of the acropolis. (6) Temple of Jupiter. An imposing stairway, later disturbed by the apses of the basilica, led to the temple dedicated to Jupiter-Hadad, or rather to the "gods of Heliopolis." Its shrine (cella), 29oft. by 6oft., was surrounded by a peristyle of 19 columns (Corinthian capitals) on each flank and ten on each front. Of these six only are left standing (south side). The columns are 62ft. high and 7,ft. in diameter, each consisting of three blocks bound together with bronze cramp pins. (7) The Bacchus or Atargatis Temple. Some 4oyd. to the south, on a different substructure and less high, stands a temple much smaller but better preserved and equally of Corinthian style. Commonly attributed to Bacchus it has recently been attributed to Atargatis (Demeter) by Thiersch. The vestibule contains a row of six fluted columns. Of the 46 columns, each 5 2f t. high, forming the peristyle, 19 still stand. A wonderful doorway with jambs and lintels elaborately orna mented with bacchantes, satyrs and genii and with vine leaves and stems, leads to the cella (87ft.X 75ft.), whose walls still stand at half their original height. The sanctuary (adytum) at the west end is approached from the cella by a short flight of steps. On the south-east of this temple is an Arab bastion of which two out of three storeys remain. Some 3ooyd. from the acropolis in the midst of the town is a round temple of the late imperial age attributed to Venus (or Fortuna?) . Its transforma tion into a Greek chapel dedicated to St. Barbara (whose place of martyrdom, however, was the Egyptian Heliopolis) ensured its preservation. To the north of the town is a ruined mosque, formerly the church of St. John, and also fragments of the facade of a Roman theatre.
