The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-11
THE TEMPLE OF THE sun.
wonderful Structures Erected In
Honor OF the God BaaI,

Honor OF the God BaaI.
Harry Fem, the artist, contributes an IL
Illustrated article on the Temple of Baal.
under the title. There Were Giants in
Those Days" to the October ST Nicho-
las. Nit Fem says
We arrived in the dusk of the evening,
and found our camp pitched in the court
yard of the inner temple but We We're too
ured, after ten hours in the saddle to adj
miro much as We stumbled over the
broken ruins in the thicken,ng darkness.
Rest and dinner, ! am afraid, seemed then
lar more important than all the temples
IN the world But later in the evening. on
hitting up the tent-hap TO see what were
the prospects of weather for the morrow
l was almost overcome by the transforma-
ton that had taken place in two hours
The darkness had fled, and The fun moon
was fioodlng the snowy peaks of Lebanon.
and stu against the mountains of white
ness stood the six huge columns. their
glorious capitals just coming into the
mysterious light. 1t seemed as if they
reached up to the very stars The people
who built them disappeared thousands OF
years ago, and their history is forgotten;
but the grandeur of their idea remains
and men of to-day travel weary miles. as
we did, TO come in touch with the handi-
work of men who never dreamed that
America existed.
The name Hellopolis Getty of the SUM-
is little confusing when used In connec-
ton with the Baalbec of which we are
talking, because the former, you will re-
member, is the name of The old old city
IN the north of Egypt where Joseph and
Mary took the child Jesus for safety at
the time of the persecution by Herod The
story goes that the Romans, who worship
ped among other deities, the lord of the
sun, BAaI STOLE the golden I'D
defeated Egyptians, and carried IL far up
north into the mountains of Anti-Lebanon,
In Syria. There they built a great acropo-
lis on the foundations of much older struc-
lures of the Phenicians with temples.
courts and columns by the thousands. and
called ii Heliopols, the City of the Sun.
The tenacious natives continued. never
theless, to use their own name for the
place, Baalbec. Baal was a sort of double
divinity. both Jupiter and the sun-a
Deardless, life-sized figure of solid gold,
holding In his right hand whip ito sym
boize his driving the horses of the chariot
OF the SUM, in his left hand a thunderbolt
and ears of wheat.
Syria, as well as Northern Egypt, was
given up at one time to the worship of
Baal, and Baalbec was the center of that
worship. l could not but sympathize. in
part with the symbol Of their worship
Our camp was pitched in the court yart1
OF one of the great temples. For two
weeks, without a cloud, each morning ar
sunrise the snow-peaks of the Lebanon
glowed like molten metal against the
green-blue sky the first herald of the god
of day.
The worship must have been an impos-
ing one. The rising sun was waited for
by the priests of Baal, who watched the
summit of Dhahr ell Khodib, upon whose
western slope are situated the cedars OF
Lebanon M ant t1,., E,,..4
ored rays struck the snow peaks, the great
daily ceremony of the grandest temple of
ancient or modern times began
Imagine the long line of priests. trum-
peters and choisters waiting and watch
ing their faces turned to catch the first
flush upon the snow-peaks, which was an
nounced by nightly blast upon hun
dred trumpets
The moment the glowing edge appeared
above the eastern hills, 800 voices of the
choisters broke into grand hymn to the
sun-the god of day, the lord of life
Speaking of the structures an eminent
writer upon such matters calls it the
"boldest plan ever attempted in architec-
tur~ Nothing that / can say or draw
-alas!-will give you an idea of the over
powering immensely of the buildings par
ticularly the great temple of the sun, with
its enormous futed golden columns, that
helped to reflect the glory Of the coming
day Many people describe Baalbec az
being built of white marble, but it is real
ly indurated (hardeneD limestone, that
has retained the wonderfully delicate de-
tail of column and peri-style as sharply
as though 1t had been finished yesterday
And it is a thrilling thought that our
obelisk i'm Central Park may have look
ed-nay, did in It's far-off Egyptian in
fancy, look into the very Temple of the
Sun, and saw our golden god at Heiopo-
lis thousands of years ago