56 ARCHITECTURE. 
order, 62 feet high, by a diameter of 6 feet, 5 inches, and placed on plinths 
2 feet high. The portico has a gable, and is approached by a flight of steps 
17 feet high, or one seventh of the entire height of the temple. The second 
row of columns is only 56 feet high, and fluted. “The columns of the peri- 
style are richly and tastefully ornamented, and the frieze has a very peculiar 
decoration. The spaces between the centres of the columns are divided into 
five parts, each with a foliated consol standing on the cymatium of the archi- 
trave, and supporting busts of animals, on which rests the cornice of the roof. 
These busts are connected by festoons of flowers. In the interior of the cella 
are at each side 6 fluted half columns, one quarter column, and one pilaster. 
Between the half columns are arches forming niches and supporting two 
small columns surmounted by a projecting gable, between which there were 
probably statues. The gate of the temple is of a bold profile, and, like the 
ceilings of the portico and pronaos, very richly decorated. The ceiling of 
the cella was arched with splendidly ornamented braces. The proportions 
of the cella are 114 feet, by 70, and it has no windows. 
Besides the described monuments, Baalbec contains the ruins of a round 
temple, 32 feet in the clear, surrounded by six Corinthian columns, 29 feet 
high, and erected on a substructure 12 feet in height. In the interior it 
had a double tier of 14 Ionian columns below and 14 Corinthian above, 
and a number of small round and triangular gables. There are also some 
huge ruins, probably belonging to an ancient building of the Tuscan order, 
judging from an isolated granite column 60 feet high, 5 feet, 6 inches thick, 
smooth, and composed of 18 pieces, near the Temple of the Sun, and some 
enormous blocks of stone near it, which lie on a wall 20 feet high, and 
whose extraordinary proportions are 60—70 feet length, by a width and 
thickness of 12—14 feet. 
_ We have, in conclusion, to add a few remarks on the period when the 
structures at Baalbec were probably erected, and by whom. According to 
the Bible (2 Chron. viii. 4, and 1 Kings ix. 18), a city was built by Solomon 
on the site of the present ruins of Palmyra about 1011 B.c., which, according 
to Flavius Josephus, was surrounded by a wall. The name of this city was 
Tadmor (city of palms), and on account of its favorable location between 
Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon, and Babylon, it soon became an important emporium 
of commerce, and must have been a splendid place when it was sacked by 
Nebuchadnezzar 600 8. c., together with Jerusalem and Tyre. From this 
time forward New Tyre, the former port of Old Tyre, must have made 
rapid progress in wealth and civilization by the concentration of the world’s 
commerce. Herodotus found there as early as the fifth century B. c. a tem- 
ple of Melcarthos or Hercules, containing a statue of gold, and another of 
emerald. Tadmor is not mentioned again by ancient writers. It occurs 
again as Palmyra under the Seleucides (successors of Seleucus Nicator), 
about the middle of the third century B.c.; and it is probable that the 
buildings of Palmyra were erected before this time. At all events, it was 
before the conquest of Palmyra by Pompey (63 B. c.), for the inscriptions 
on the building are Palmyrenian. At the beginning of the first century 
p. c. Palmyra was a rich and influential place, whose alliance was coveted 
56 
