BAALBEK RUINS.

Grey River Argus, 12 February 1929, Page 6

BAALBEK RUINS.

CRUMBLING TO DECAY. MAGNIFICENT RELICS. One of the most magnificent relics of the past is in imminent danger of being destroyed, and will bo lost to the world unless immediate steps are taken to ensure its preservation. The remains of Baalbek are in danger of gradually crumbling away and collapsing.- A number of pillars have already Keen destroyed by time, and now form a heap of ruins in the midst of a desert that, is full of associations with Biblical times. Baalbeg is the most colossal of the remains left, from the ancient period The colonnades of the Sun Temple, towering up out of the Phoenician foundations, and visible from afar, look as though they are raising Cyclopean fingers to the sky. Arranged in lows like those of the Egyptian Thebes, they stretch up their mighty s’one foundations, which even the earthquakes that once brought ruin and devastation in their tram, were barely able to touch.

THRILITON REMAINS INTACT.. The most wonderful feature of Baalbek the Thriliton, has so far withstood all destructive influences. The Thriliton a huge construction of marble, is a wall more than 60 metres in length and consisting of one more than three, enormous blocks of stone, int 0 the spaces between which not so much as the blade of a knife can be trust. These blocks form one compact room, and at a la’er period served as thc base, for strongholds built upon it. On an elevation close by them is also a fourth block. Only one corner of this block was lodged in the ancient quarry and had to be hewn through to free it and roll it over to join onto ’he other three.. Traces of the rut along which these were brought to their destination prior to the fourth block joining them are still visible. MOVED BY 3000 SLAVES. It is hard t 0 conceive where the power was taken from to move such colossal masses. An English engineer, known for his daring and succesful excavations, is said to have figured out- that it must have taken the combined strength of 3000 slaves to life the three blocks out of the quarry bed. Near the Sun Temple, hidden away in a secluded and shady spot, there is another sanctuary less superhuman in effect. This resembles a chapel with small windows, slim pillars and the remains of statuary. It is the place where the cult of Astarte was practised in secret.

The extensive ruins are situated in a region around,' which! myth and legend- have been woven from time immemorial. Here, according to native tradition. Adam and the patriarchs once dwelt Adam lived in Damascus and died in Zebedani. In Abylene, farther south Cain dwelt. Seth’s tomb in Nebi-Shitt is even in this day an object of veneration; Noah was buried in Karak-Nouh and his son. Ham, in the village of Ham, three hours distant from Baalbek. And all the gigantic structures as typified in Baalbek are said to have Is ( een built by Cain, whose son. Henokh, liver there with a giant race up t o th c time of the Flood. Later Nimrod, the King of the Lebanon, erected the- Tower of Baal, the god of the Moabites. Abraham, Elisha, and Solomon, thc Phoenicians, Caesar, Trojan, Caracalla, Cons’antine, and Heraclius the Omayyads and the Fatimidts, St. Eudoxia and JSt. Cyril, whose folowers ■ later relapsed into paganism, all have tarried here,' like all earthly things, now also seem going the way of these great ones.