Baalbek, Lebanon – Day 5

Day One. Days Two-Three. Day Four – Jeita Grotto & Harrisa; Byblos.

DAY FIVE – Back in April, when I was at Antiochian Village for some meetings, I snapped some pics of old photographs of Lebanon from the walls of the Conference center and Whatsapped them to Mary Catherine in Beirut. One of them was of Baalbek from the late 19^th century. She replied that, hopefully, we would go there when I came.

Everyone, here & in Lebanon – and I mean EVERYONE – said, “No. You can’t go to Baalbek. It’s not safe.”

But, my daughter’s a pretty head-strong gal and I knew that, one way or another, she was going to Baalbek before leaving Lebanon. So, you know … DAD!

Yameen, our driver picked us up at 10 … traffic was cray! A couple check points, etc. The ruins of Baalbek are MAGNIFICENT! We had a tour guide who reminded us of Bishop Thomas (of Charleston) with a few more years on him. (Many years, Sayyidna 😉

Baalbek. I’ll let these images speak for themselves:

The shrine of the temple of Jupiter in Baalbek was the largest sanctuary in the Roman world, but little survives, except for six Corinthian columns on the south side, which are still carrying their entablature (the horizontal beams). While I was there, they were receiving a bit of a “shore up”.

Although it is sometimes called “the small temple”, it is larger (and better preserved) than the Parthenon in Athens. The Lebanese temple is one of the largest of Antiquity, but still, it is dwarfed by the temple of Jupiter next to it.