Baalbec.
The temples of Palmyra and Kangovar have been already mentioned in speaking of that of Jerusalem, to which class they seem to belong in their general arrangements, though their details are borrowed from Roman architecture. This, however, is not the case with the temples at Baalbec, which taken together and with their accompaniments, form the most magnificent temple group now left to us of their class and age. The great temple, if completed (which, however, probably it never was), would have been about 160 ft. by 290, and therefore, as a Corinthian temple, only inferior to that of Jupiter Olympius at Athens. Only nine of its colossal columns are now standing, but the bases of most of the others are in situ. Scarcely less magnificent than the temple itself was the court in which it stood, above 380 ft. square, and surrounded on three sides by recessed porticoes of most exuberant richness, though in perhaps rather questionable taste. In front of this was a hexagonal court of very great beauty, with a noble portico of 12 Corinthian columns, with two square blocks of masonry at each end. The whole extent of the portico is 260 ft., and of its kind it is perhaps unrivalled, certainly among the buildings of so late a date as the period to which it belongs.
197. Plan of Small Temple at Baalbec. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
198. Elevation of Small Temple at Baalbec. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
The other, or smaller temple, stands close to the larger. Its dimensions, to the usual scale, are shown in the plan (Woodcut No. [197]). It is larger than any of the Roman peripteral temples, being 117 ft. by 227 ft., or rather exceeding the dimensions of the Parthenon at Athens, and its portico is both wider and higher than that of the Pantheon at Rome. Had this portico been applied to that building, the slope of its pediment would have coincided exactly with that of the upper sloping cornice, and would have been the greatest possible improvement to that edifice. As it is, it certainly is the best proportioned and the most graceful Roman portico of the first class that remains to us in a state of sufficient completeness to allow us to judge of its effect.
The interior of the cella was richly ornamented with niches and pilasters, and covered with a ribbed and coffered vault, remarkable, like every part of this edifice, rather for the profusion than for the good taste of its ornaments.
One of the principal peculiarities of this group of buildings is the immense size of some of the stones used in the substructure of the great temple: three of these average about 63 ft. in length, 10 ft. 5 in. in breadth, and 13 ft. in height. A fourth, of similar dimensions, is lying in the quarry, which it is calculated must weigh alone more than 1100 tons in its rough state, or nearly as much as one of the tubes of the Britannia Bridge. It is not easy to see why such masses were employed. If they had been used as foundation stones their use would have been apparent, but they are placed over several courses of smaller stones, about half-way up the terrace wall, as mere binding stones, apparently for show. It is true that in many places in the Bible and in Josephus nothing is so much insisted upon as the immense size of the stones used in the building of the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem, the bulk of the materials used appearing to have been thought a matter of far more importance than the architecture. It probably was some such feeling as this which led to their employment here, though, had these huge stones been set upright, as the Egyptians would have placed them, we might more easily have understood why so great an expense should have been incurred on their account. As it is, there seems no reason for doubting their being of the same age as the temples they support, though their use is certainly exceptional in Roman temples of this class.
CHAPTER IV.
BASILICAS, THEATRES, AND BATHS.
CONTENTS.
Basilicas of Trajan and Maxentius—Provincial basilicas—Theatre at Orange—Colosseum—Provincial amphitheatres—Baths of Diocletian.