214 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
was an impregnable fortress, which Solomon called the Tower 
of Lebanon. The Greeks believe it to be Nicomedia, where 
Santa Barbara suffered martyrdom. Pierre Belon, a French 
traveler, who visited Baalbek in 1548, considered it to be the 
ancient Cesarea Philippi, where St. Paul makes mention of 
having been. Some believe it to be the ancient Palmyra ; 
which, however, is now well known to be four days distant. 
The most reliable authorities agree in the opinion that Baal¬ 
bek is the ancient Heliopolis. 
I was not disappointed in the ruins of Baalbek, and this is 
saying a good deal. There is very little to be seen in the old 
world that does not produce disappointment; for I believe any 
traveler who is willing to confess the truth will admit that 
reading about places of this kind at home and seeing them 
with the naked eye are altogether different things. The ruins 
of Baalbek are among the few sights one sees in the East that 
will bear the test of scrutiny; the more they are studied the 
greater is the admiration they excite; and if one can not go 
into the sentimentalities of Lamartine, he will see enough at 
least to afford both pleasure and wonder. 
Modern Baalbek is totally unworthy the name it bears. I 
had imagined it to be something like Beirut, or in any event 
not inferior to Tripoli; but the fact is, it is a miserable vil¬ 
lage, not much better than the meanest collection of hovels 
we had seen on the road. A few scattered and ruinous stone 
huts, with flat mud roofs, the walls broken, and the stones 
scattered in piles through the narrow and filthy lanes, two or 
three dilapidated mosques, and a Greek convent, constitute 
nearly all that exists of Baalbek, exclusive of the ancient 
temples. Travelers, in consequence of the difficulty of pro¬ 
curing accommodation in any of the Mohammedan houses, are 
generally compelled to camp outside, or seek for quarters in 
the Greek convent, which is about as tempting as a comfort¬ 
able pig-sty. The hill-sides are covered with the ruins of the 
ancient walls, and the whole town is so dilapidated that it is 
difficult to distinguish the houses from the general wreck. 
Many portions of the ancient ruins are built in among the 
hovels, forming a curious melange of the sublime and the ridi- 
