789 



BAALBEC. 



BAALBEC. 



790 



The two great inclosures or courts with their porticoes and exhedrse 

 very much resemble the open halls and exhedne of the baths of 

 Caracalla in Rome, and appear like them to have been intended for 

 the protection of the people from sun and rain. In these shady 

 porticoes the merchants of Baalbec may have transacted business ; 

 or it may be that these vast inclosures were formed for the purposes 

 of fora, or places of business, which must have been essential to a 

 wealthy community, such as Baalbec certainly was, if the magnitude 

 of its ruins may be taken as evidence of wealth. Another opinion 

 however is that the buildings round the inclosures served as schools 

 and lodgings for the priests of the Sun. The ascent to the portico 

 which formed the grand entrance to these buildings was by a magni- 

 ficent flight of 48 steps : the propylaea were also flanked by a podium 

 or low wall, at the extremity of which are two square exhedrae 

 decorated with Corinthian pilasters. This front is represented on 

 the reverse of the coin of Otacilia. The Turks appear to have 

 turned this building into a fortress, and to have heightened the 

 walls of the exhedrae, finishing them with a battlement after the 

 Turkinli fashion. The shafts of the columns employed in the courts 

 of the f'/ra were of one piece of granite, and above the entablature 

 there was an attic divided at intervals by short pilasters, forming 

 pedestals for statues ; a similar attic was placed over the exhedrae of 

 the great entrance. In every part of these buildings also there were 

 rich niches decorated with columns and adorned with statues and busts. 



The great temple appears to have been a peripteral pycnostyle 

 temple, having ten columns in front and nineteen on the flank, the 

 columns being 7 feet 10 inches in diameter, and 8 feet 1 inch apart, 

 except in the centre intercolumniation of the portico. It appears 

 that in 1550 there were still standing 27 columns of the great temple ; 

 travellers subsequently to this period mention but nine columns, 

 with an entablature over them ; and Volney in 1785 saw only six 

 standing. The shafts of these columns consist of three pieces, united 

 so exactly that the blade of a knife cannot be inserted between the 

 joints. 



The smaller but more perfect building, which has eight columns in 

 front and fifteen on the flank, is 225 feet in length, 118 feet in 

 width, and 1 02 feet from the base of the columns to the apex of the 

 pediment. The columns of the portico, which is dipteral, have been 

 fluted, with the exception of the two columns at each flank. This 

 building which appears in some respects to resemble an ancient 

 basilica, is about 200 feet to the southward of the large temple, but 

 built on a lower level, the bottom of the basement of the great temple 

 being nearly as high as the top of the basement of the smaller edifice. 

 The site of these buildings being very uneven the basement on the 

 south side is raised considerably, with a solid foundation of large 

 stones. The structure is peripteral ; the columns are also pycnostyle, 



View of the Circular Temple, from Wood and Dawkins. 



and the portico is dipteral with a pseudo-intercolumniation before 

 the ante of the pronaos. Among other features of the basilica this 

 nnaller structure, as is represented, had a raised platform at the end, 

 with the vaults below it and steps descending into them. This 

 nnaller temple had an interior arrangement of columns, which were 

 probably placed there when the building was converted into a church. 



The roof appears to have been arched ; and as there are no windows 

 in the sides we must conclude that there were openings in it. The 

 columns of this building are also made of three pieces of stone, joined 

 very accurately together without cement, and strengthened with iron 

 cramps fixed into a socket worked in each stone. Most of the bases 

 had two sockets, oue circular and another square, corresponding to 

 two others of the same shape and dimensions in the under part of 

 the shaft : some of the largest of the circular cramps were a foot 

 long and a foot in diameter. The bashaws of Damascus have carried 

 away large quantities of iron from these ruins at different times, and 

 have left marks of their attempts to get at the iron in the columns 

 which are still standing. This method of putting together the shaft 

 of a column contributes very materially in a dry climate to the strength 

 and durability of a building, and in the most perfect building at 

 Baalbec a very remarkable instance of its utility is shown : a column 

 has fallen against the wall of the cella with such violence as to drive 

 in a stone of the wall without in the least disuniting the joints of 

 the shaft. Maundrell speaking of this building says that " it strikes 

 the mind with an air of greatness beyond anything that he ever saw 

 before, and is an eminent proof of the magnificence of ancient archi- 

 tecture." 



The circular temple is 32 feet in diameter internally, and 63 feet 

 at its greatest width externally, with a portico about 50 feet in 

 width. It is of the Corinthian order, with niches on the exterior of 

 the cella, and decorated with twelve columns, eight of which form a 

 dipteral portico, which has a flight of 21 steps in front. From the 

 two lateral columns of the portico commences the circular peristyle 

 of the building. The entablature of the dipteral portico is carried in 

 a straight line, and that of the peristyle is curved on the perpendicular 

 face, and sweeps in an elegant line from column to column, the centre 

 of the curved architrave being bedded on the circular wall of the 

 building. This edifice is decorated in the interior with an Ionic 

 order of columns, above which is another decoration consisting of 

 niches with pediments, and between each there is a single column 

 with a small portion of an entablature over it ; the roof was a dome 

 probably open at the top, like the Pantheon at Rome. This building 

 has been converted into a Greek church. 



The order most frequently used throughout these buildings is the 

 Corinthian. The Ionic occurs in the interior of the circular building 

 only ; and in the niches which decorate the anterior of the fora, as 

 well as in the building which we have called the basilica, the Com- 

 posite is employed. The niches are decorated with columns and 

 pediments, and form the principal feature of these edifices in their 

 ruined state ; they were intended for statues and busts, the pedestals 

 for which still remain. These edifices were highly decorated with 

 sculptured ornament very well executed. 



A single Doric or according to Pocock a Tuscan column stands 

 on the hill in the south-west part of the city, where the walls inclose 

 a little of the foot of Anti-Libanus. This column is raised on a 

 square foundation 5 feet 7 inches high, consisting of three steps ; the 

 shaft and capital are composed of eighteen stones, each about 3 feet 

 high ; about ten feet below the capital the shaft is surrounded 

 by an ornament, consisting of five festoons very finely executed. Cn 

 the top of the capital there are two tiers of stones, which form a 

 small basin about 3 feet deep; from this basin there is a hole 

 cut through the capital, with a semicircular channel 9 inches wide and 

 6 inches deep, down the south side of the column and step. This 

 channel is not perpendicular, but forms an irregular curve. 



Without the walls there are also several ruins. The most remark- 

 able is i Corinthian column in the plain about two leagues from 

 the city : the shaft consists of fourteen stones, each about 3 feet 

 thick (high), and stands on a base of five steps, 6 feet 3 inches high ; 

 on the north side there is a square compartment, probably for an 

 inscription, but no traces of any now remain. To the south-east of 

 the famous temple there are fragments of columns of red granite, 

 and some signs of the foundation of a building. There is also a 

 Mohammedan sepulchre of an octagonal form, to the south-east of the 

 city on the road to Damascus, the dome of which is supported by 

 granite columns of the same kind, which were probably brought from 

 the ruins to the south-east of the great temple. These columns 

 are about 12 feet long and 5 feet in circumference, so that each 

 column was probably sawn into two parts : the granite is of a most 

 beautiful kind with large spots, and is finely polished. There are 

 also some ruins at a village a league from the city on the road to 

 Tripoli ; among others a building 40 feet in length. 



The city walls, which are about four miles in circuit, appear to be 

 a confused patchwork put together in haste ; with the rough stones 

 are fragments of capitals, entablatures, and reversed Greek inscriptions. 

 The walls are from 10 to 12 feet in height, with large square 

 towers at intervals. The gates are also built in a rude style, with 

 the exception of one on the north side, where there are the ruins of 

 a large sub-basement, with pedestals and bases for four columns in 

 magnificent taste and of a much higher antiquity. Both within and 

 without the walls are confused heaps of rubbish, which appear to 

 be the ruins of ancient buildings. 



In contemplating these ruins one is struck by the immense size of the 

 stones employed. Among others there are at least twenty of enormous 

 dimensions. On the west side of the basement of the great temple 



