Travel with me to Baalbek Lebanon: Temples of Jupiter Bacchus & Venus

Travel with me back in time to a place rarely seen by the world traveler. We are off to Baalbek in Lebanon to wander around the Temples of Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus.

The windswept and sun blasted Beqaa Valley in Lebanon houses the most massive and important temple complex of the Roman Empire.

The largest Roman columns on earth

It was a windy day when we visited Baalbek (Heliopolis) the city of the sun. The great Temple of Jupiter was glistening in the midday furnace that is the Beqaa Valley. It was very hot but we just had to go on the tour as we couldn't wait to hear the story of these amazing structures.

Entrance to the Temple of Jupiter

These ancient megaliths of Baalbek Lebanon in the Beqaa (Bekaa) Valley have baffled people for 1,000's of years. Some think that aliens must have been involved in the construction and to a point this is true.

Hassan a local archaeologist and our guide has worked at the site for 40 years just like his father before him

The eternal question is. How on earth were these massive structures built?
How were the Baalbek megaliths moved?
How was it possible for such early human civilizations to move these huge stone monoliths some of which were from as far away as Egypt?
There are so many unanswered questions even today.

One theory that our guide Hassan shared with us may answer this question

Many individual stones are between 400 and 840 tons each with some stones weighing 1200 tons. Moving a 400 ton stone is impressive enough?
Moving a 1200 ton stone is unimaginable hard?

The slaves had little or no equipment capable of moving such huge stones so how did they really do it? Is it possible to move them using the above method. The explanation discussed in this video may be not be pleasant but may in fact be true.

Video tour of the temple complex

Inside the temple complex you now get an idea of the scale of this monumental structure

Hassan told us that the temple was very important. The reason for this he explained is because it contains the largest and tallest columns ever built by the Roman empire. They are absolutely massive.

The tallest Roman Columns in the world are at Baalbek

This small town in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley has a very long history predating both Greek and Roman antiquity, it was also known as Heliopolis, the city of the sun. (Sun city)
It possesses some of the best preserved and extensive Roman empire era ruins in the world. Baalbek is a Unesco World Heritage site

The whole site is massive and each temple is individually impressive. To have three temples all in one place is incredibly unusual and rare.

The Temple of Bacchus

Celebrates the fact that Bacchus was the god of wine, good times and debauchery. Parties would go on for days on end and all kinds of pleasures indulged. Stone carvings depict people enjoying all the fruits of the Beqaa Valley.

Bacchus was a hermaphrodite (possessed both male and female genitals) and was held in the highest regard.

People at that time wanted to please their gods and to please Bacchus was simple all you had to do was have a good time.

Detail of the Temple of Jupiter

Jupiter was the king of all the gods. Jupiter's temple is the largest on the site as denotes his top position in the pantheon of the gods.

Jupiter also known as Jove was a sky god and controlled the sun and weather including thunder and lightning.

Detail of the Temple of Venus

There are several stone carvings of Venus. She was the goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory.

Venus is carved into the Baalbek stones as if rising out of the ocean in a shell. Just like Aphrodite. The connections are obvious.

The whole temple complex site is beautiful and has an unbelievable colour to the stones after so many years in the baking sun. It's size and construction boggles the mind and it's incredible to think that they built this place over 2,000 years ago on top of an existing structure that dates back even further to the Phonecian and Assyrian cultures.
It is a massive monument to a bygone age. It must have made the people feel in awe of their rulers and their gods.

Inscription to Jove, another name for Jupiter

The various buildings took over 250 years to build. It is a fascinating place to visit and makes us question everything we think we know about the ancient world. These people were way more advanced than we commonly assume.
What do you think? How do you think they built these massive temples?

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