BAALBEK, THE MYSTERIOUS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 361, 21 February 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

BAALBEK, THE MYSTERIOUS.

Among the grandest relics of a great nation’s vanished glory stands the ruins of Baalbek, certainly one of the most mysterious of ancient cities. These ruins in Syria are rightly renowned for their masiveness and for the great amount of both bold and delicate carvings with which they are adorned. An account of them is appropriate, for through German excavators, under Dr. Sabeisheim and Professor Puchstein, who have been toiling there for four years now, much new and interesting light has been throw upon the history of this once famous city. Indeed, these savants may be said to have done for Baalbek what Bayard did for Nineveh and Babylon. Still it must be admitted that the work of the Germans has not been altogether a disinterested one, for the Berlin museums now possess many of the finest examples of carvings found there. These wonderful ruins, in some respects the most famous in Bible lands lie in the narrow picturesque valley of the Litani, a short distance west of the little town of Baalbek, at an altitude of some 4000 ft. above sea level. The town is about ten miles north of the railway ■which runs from Beirut to Damascus. To visit the ruins, therefore, one goes by train from Beirut to El-Mullakka, from which place they can be reached in an hour or two by carriage. Here the ancient Assyrians worshipped Baal, the Greeks Helios, the God of the Sun, and the Romans Jupiter. The early Christians. too, worshipped the Gpd of Jehovah at ancient Baalbek, turning the great pagan temple into a Christian shrine. They, in turn, were driven out by the Arabs, who converter these wonderful old temples, into fortresses. Although inscriptions and tablets found make this very clear, we have, nevertheless, very little knowledge of ancient Baalbek. Its history is lost in the thick obscurity of a pery remote past, and even its existence was for centuries utterly unknown. The extraordinary silence of the ancient Greek and Roman writers concerning a place »o extensive, wealthy, important, and magnificent is unaccountable. John of Antioch is the only ancient author by whom it is mentioned. And he was wrong in mnay of his statements. He ascribed these ruins to Alins Antonius Pius, declaring, that he built the great temple at Heliopolis, near Libanus, in Phoenicia, which was one of the wonders of the world in the early days of the second century. Inscriptions found by tho German excavators would go to show, however, that the great temples were begun by the Romans in the first century after Christ, and this view is also confirmed by the Syrian writer Michel Alouf, who is a native of Baalbek, and who has devoted an immense amount of time to the patient study oi all documents bearing upon the history of his birthplace. Oriental writers speak of Baalbek at tho period of the first- Arab invasion, describing it as being then, one of the most ’ splendid of Syrian cities, havng stately palaces adorned with monuments of great age, abounding with fountains and artistic adornments of wonderful richness, variety, and beauty. Its commercial importance is shown by the fact that during its siege by the Moslems, shortly after the fall of Damascus, is enemies captured a caravan bearing four hundred loads of silk, sugar, and other commodities; and its wealth is asceitained by the ransom that was executed, of two thousand ounces of gold, four thousand ounces of silver, two thousand silk vests, and a thousand swords, in addition to the arms borne by its defenders.

First and foremost among the ruins, therefore, comes the Great Temple. Its main entrance was from the east. Here a wide flight of steps led up to the propylea, 19ft. abope the gardens and orchards that now surround the ruins. This portico was opened to the east the full width of the stairs, and the worshippers used to enter between rows of columns on the bases of three of which are inscriptions stating that the temple was erected to the “Great Gods” or Heliopolis. "When the Arabs conquered the city they converted these temples into fortresses, and to this end to a certain extent remodelled them. The columns mentioned were removed, the staircase taken away; and the material used to construct a solid wall where the columns had been. The German excavators have torn away the wall constructed over the bases of the columns, and built a narrow staircase where the great one used to be. so that to-day one enters again as did the Roman worshippers of old. Indeed, every visitor to the ruins to-day owes the Germans a debt of gratitude, for in removing the Arabic work they have made the original plan more easily comprehensible. Tons of debris have been removed, and weak parts in the ruins have been strengthened. The second great ruin is the Temple of Bacchus, the doorway of which is illustrated on this page, from the “ Scientific American.” It lies to the south of the Great Temple, entirely independent of it and on a much lower level. It had no court, but was entered by a flight of steps from the east. The walls of the cclla. which is oblong, are quite plain on the outside, and are built of carefully dressed stone, the joints so perfect that a knife blade cannot enter between. Around this, on the two sides and ends, runs a row of smooth columns which form the peristyle. These, including their capitals, are about 52 ft. high, ana are surmounted by a magnificent entablature. and connected with the walls of the cellar by enormous slabs of stone which are elaborately carped with the heads of emperors, deities, and interwoven with floral designs, forming a most unique ceding. While the walls of the cella are still perfect, more than half of the columns forming the peristyle have fallen, the north side being the best preserved. Here in a niche may be seen a tablet commemorating the visit of the German Emperor to these ruins in 1898. Notwithstanding the profuse ormentation of the peristyle, it is exceeded by that oi the portal to this temple, which is ’indeed the gem of the entire edifice. The door posts are elegantly caryed with figures of Bacchus, fawns, cupids, satyrs, and bacchantes, woven around which are grape vines and clusters of fruit, also poppies and ears of wheat, al of which are symbolical of the revelling which the temple suggested. This great doorway stands 43rt. high and 21|ft. wide, while the carving of the posts just mentioned covers- a space about six feet wide. On both sides of this door stand graceful fluted columns forming, the prostyle or portico, while the plain ones of the peristyle, whicn stand behind them, seem to reflect their beauty.

The Great Temple lies 44>ft. above the level of the plain, and is the highest part of the entire enclosure, while the Great Court was only 23ft. lower down. An enclosing wall, the mammoth stones of which have been the marpel of engineers for ages, deserves mention. The lower courses of the wall here are built of stones of moderate size, until we come to a row of three enormous stones, the shortest 63ft. and the longest 65ft. in length, about 13ft. high, and 10ft. thick. The course of which they form part is some 20ft. above the surface of the ground. They are the largest building blocks ever known to have been used by man. and a still larger one lies in the ancient near-by quarry, never hav-

ing been detached from toe rock beneath. This one is 70ft. long, 14ft. hjgh, and 13ft. wide. Its estimated weight is llOOtons, and it is calculated that to raise it would require the strength of 60,000 men. It was probably intended, (writes Harold J. Shepstone, in the “Scientific American”) to be placed in the cyclopean wall of the ■temple enclosure; but some sudden war, pestilence, or revolution must have in- ; terrupted the plans of these ancient builders or they would not have expended the labour of years upon this mighty block and then abandoned it still unattached from the quarry..