Nestled between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains, the Beqaa Valley is an elevated valley running north-south famous for its vineyards and fruit, and the cedar and cypress forests that once covered its mountains.  The abundance of springs in the area form the headwaters of the Orontes and Litani rivers.  The name Baalbek should probably be translated the “Valley Of Baal” and is probably the “Baal Gad” of Joshua 11:17 and 12:7.  An important city in the Beqaa valley, Heliopolis (Greek. “City of the Sun”) was the location of several impressive temples during the Roman period.   Scholars have suggested that the worship of the sun at Baalbek does not predate the Roman era, when sun worship is thought to have become the dominant cult in the region. However, there is evidence for sun worship at Baalbek during the Iron Age. Amos makes reference to a “Valley of Aven” which he places in the vicinity of Damascus (Amos 1:5). Literally translated, the name means the Valley of Sin (Hebrew aven, “sin”) but this is a late scribal emendation—a damnatio memoriae.  With a slight emendation, the name may also be translated the Valley of On, which is probably the correct translation. The Hebrew term ‘On’ means “vigor” or “wealth” and is the name used in the Bible to refer to an Egyptian city located in the Nile delta named Heliopolis. This is where the temple of Ra, the sun god, was located (Gen. 41:45, Ezek. 30:15-17). 

The place named “On” located in Lebanon (Amos 1:5) was probably a place dedicated to sun worship. Thus it became known as “Heliopolis” during the Roman period. The same argument may be applied to Beth Aven, located somewhere in the vicinity of Ai and Bethel (1 Sam. 13:5). “Beth Aven” should be translated Beth On and included among the high places where sun worship was practiced (Hos. 10:8). There is no difficulty associating Baal with the sun instead of the storm since there were many baal’s, each associated with a particular place or aspect of nature.

The Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus

There is some mystery surrounding the construction of the temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus.   No documentary evidence exists for when the construction of the temple began, or by whom, although it is generally assumed that construction began around 16 BC when a Roman colony was established in the valley.  Presumably there was an earlier high place located beneath the Roman temple but, as is so often the case, all traces of the former sanctuary have disappeared. By the time the temple of Jupiter was completed, sometime around 60 AD, it stood as one of the largest and most impressive structures in the Roman world.   Its massive Corinithian columns, eight feet wide and one hundred feet tall, are the tallest in the Greco-Roman world. Fifty four columns were used in the construction of the temple, each cut from a single piece of granite imported from Egypt. As a point of comparison, most of the Egyptian obelisks were not much taller than the columns of this temple, but they were never transported beyond the flood plain of the Nile, whereas these columns were somehow transported across the sea and over a high mountain pass without breaking them.

Adapted from Wiegand, Baalbek (1898 – 1905), Plate I.

Adapted from Wiegand, Baalbek (1898 – 1905), Plate XVI.

Adapted from Wiegand, Baalbek (1898 – 1905), Plate L.

ARC/Ancient List

ARC/Ancient List

The temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus was approached through a large courtyard where a tall altar was situated, flanked by two shallow square basins filled with water.  Beyond the altar was a stairway leading up to the temple.  All that remains standing today are a row of six massive granite columns.

The Temple of Bacchus

The Roman emperor Antonius Pius (138 – 161 AD) built a smaller temple next to the temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus. It is a very well preserved example of the Corinthian order of architecture favored by Romans builders during the Imperial Era. The temple is thought to have been dedicated to Bacchus, which is the name the Romans gave to the Greek god Dionysus.  Although the origin and meaning of the name “Bacchus” is unknown, the name may be derived from the Semitic word baccah, which means “to weep.” This fits with what we know of the religious rituals practiced at Baalbek which involved ritual mourning for the dead god (See the next entry: Sursock Bronze).

The Mother of All Stones

David Urquhart, one of the first explorers to visit Baalbek in the early 1800s, noted in his journal that he had seen stones in the foundation walls of the temple “of dimensions so enormous, as to shut out every other thought, and yet to fill the mind only with trouble.”¹David Urquhart 1860, Vol. 2 Many visitors to Baalbek since then have felt the same sense of wonder and unease at the shear size at the building

ARC/Ancient List

Three of the stones, known collectively as “the Trilithon,” weigh approximately 700 tons each.  Several more were found in a nearby quarry, one of them weighing around 1000 tons, and another, recently discovered in 2014, weighing 1600 tons!  

Who cut and moved these stones into place?  We don’t actually know for sure.  According to the 6th century Greek historian, John Malalas, the Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus was constructed during the reign of Antonius Pius (138 – 161 AD). However, its foundations could have been laid earlier.  Some think that Herod may have been involved in the project during its early stages since Baalbek was under Herod’s jurisdiction and none knew better how to build with large stones than he did. There is a stone in the foundation of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem that weighs 400 tons.  But the stones at Baalbek are nearly double that weight.  And what about the stones in the quarry that weigh between 1000 and 1600 tons?  Why would anyone bother to cut such massive stones?  And why were they never used?