Baalbek was well known in the days of the Phœnicians and was a great city in the time of Christ. It was about a hundred years after that that the finest of the temples, the ruins of which we see to-day, were constructed. Then the Roman civilization was in the height of its glory, and the emperors were building cities in north Africa, in Asia Minor, and in other parts of the world. The Romans put up the temples here in honour of Jupiter (Baal), which had in them smaller temples to Venus and Bacchus. They worshipped Baal, the god of the sun, as one of the greatest of their deities, although they had other gods without number.
As to the worship of Baal, there have been gods of that name almost since the beginnings of history. It is a question, indeed, whether the word Baal did not mean “lord,” being a general term for male gods of various kinds. Later on the Greeks considered Baal the god of the sun, classing him with the god represented by Helios, in whose honour the city of Heliopolis in Egypt was built. The worship of Baal runs through the Bible. Samuel rebuked the Israelites for bowing down to him, and Jezebel had four hundred priests of Baal who were confounded by Elijah. Indeed, it is a question whether Beelzebub, or the devil, was not Baalzebub.
Here at Baalbek the finest statue was that of this god. It was of gold and represented a beardless young man clad in armour standing between two golden bulls. He held a whip in his right hand and a thunderbolt and some ears of corn in his left. There were also statues of Mercury and Venus, a Hall of Bacchus, and statues and statuettes of exquisite workmanship. These images were destroyed by the early Christians, who threw down parts of the temples and broke up the carvings in their detestation of all pagan art.
It is impossible to give pictures of the ruins and of the mighty temples as they were in their wonderful beauty. The ruins cover more than ten acres, and the Great Temple alone was about three hundred feet long by one hundred and sixty feet wide. It had a roof upheld by Corinthian columns only, six of which are now standing. These columns are eighty feet high and twenty-two feet in circumference. In entering the temples I went up a gigantic staircase, a great part of which has been destroyed, and came into what is known as the forecourt, which is about two hundred feet wide, and the floor of which was paved with mosaic.
We next went through another court, known as the Court of the Altar, which must cover five or six acres. It is a mass of marble and granite, gigantic columns and delicate carvings being thrown helter-skelter together. Beyond this and up a series of steps are the ruins of the Great Temple itself. At the left is the exquisite Temple of Bacchus, and everywhere are great shafts of marble so wonderfully carved that they would be treasures in any museum.
The nomadic Bedouins live in brown tents so low that the people have to stoop to get into them. They camp wherever they find good grazing for their stock
The desolation of the once heavily wooded mountains of Lebanon is emphasized by the lonely grove of cedars. This grove, far up among the snows, is protected by a wall and contains four hundred very old trees