RUINS OF BAALBEK.
But probably the thing that most impresses one about the ruins of Baalbek is the enormous size of the stones used in its buildings. I have never seen or read of such stones as were used in building these temples. Many of them are as large as one of our ordinary freight cars. Three of these stones, lying end to end in the walls of the temple, measure two hundred and ten feet. I go to the quarry, half a mile away, from which these colossal stones were taken. There I find a companion stone to those in the buildings. It is fourteen feet high, seventeen feet broad and seventy-one feet long. Who ever heard of such stones being handled! Two six mule teams might be driven side by side on the stone, and there would be room for a foot path on either side the wagons. No pigmies they—those builders of Baalbek. A race of giants or of gods must have handled these stones! No one knows when, how, or by whom these temples were built. We know this, however, they were built, not for an age, but for all time.
CHAPTER XXVII.
DAMASCUS.