Evening star., 1898-10-15
THE TEMPLE OF THE Sun.
wonderful Structures Erected IL
Homer of the God Daai.


We arrived in the dusk of the evening,
ana found our camp pitched in the court
yard of the inner temple: but we were too
tired, after ten hours in the saddle, to ad-
mire much as We stumbled over the broken
ruins in the thickening darkness Rest and
dinner, 1 am afraid, seemed then far more
important than all the temples in the
world. But later in the evening, on lifting
up the tent flap to see what were the pros
poets of weather for the morrow, I was
almost overcome by the TRANSFORMED ton
that had taken place in two hours. The
darkness had fled and the full moon was
fiooding the snowy peaks of Lebanon. and
still against the mountains of whiteness
stood the six huge columns, their glor-
| lous capitals just coming into the nvs-
terious light. II seemed as if they reached
up to the very stars. The people who built
them disappeared thousands of years ago.
and their history has been forgotten: but
the grandeur of their idea remains. and
men of today travel weary miles as we
did, to come in touch with the handiwork
OF men who never dreamed that America
existed.
The name HeliopoHs Getty of the SUM-
IS Il niue confusing when used in connec-
tlOn with the Baaibec of which we are talk
ing, because the former, you will remem-
| Der, 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 worshiped
among other deities, the lord of the sun,
Baal, stole the golden god from the defeat
ed Egyptians, and carried 1t far up north
into the mountains cf Anti-Lehanon, in
Syria. There they built a great acropoiis
on the foundations of much older structures
of the Phoenicians, with temples, courts and
columns by the thousands, and called it
lieiopolis, the City Of the Sun. The tena-
cious natives continued. nevertheless to
use their own name for the place, Baalbec
Baal was sort of double divinity both
Jupiter and the sun-a beardleSs, lfe-siZed
! figure of solid gold, holding in his right
hand whip to Symbolic his driving the
horses OF the chariot of the sum- in his
left hand a thuuderbolt and ears of wheat
Syria, as well az northern Egypt. was
given up at one time to the worship of
Baal, and Baalbec was the center of that
worship. | could not but symDathfZe, in
part, with the symbol of their worship. Our
camp was pitched in the courtyard of one
of the great temples. For two weeks, with
out cloud, each morning at 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 imposing
one. The rising sun was waited for by the
priests of Baal, who watched the sum
: "
ern slope are situated the CedarS of IIeba-
non. The moment the first lOse-colored
rays struck the snow peaks the great daily
ceremony OF the grandest temple of an
cicnt or modern times began.
Imagine the long line Of priests, trumpet
ers and chOristers waiting and watching,
their faces turned to catch the first flush
upon the snow peaks, which was an
nOunced by mighty blast upon a hundred
trumpets.
The moment the glowing edge appeared
above the eastern hills five hundred voices
of the chOriSters 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 bold
est plan ever attempted in architecture"
Nothing that ] can say or draW-aas-wll
give you an idea Of the Overpowering i'm
mensity of the buildings, particularly the
great Temple of the sun, with its enOr-
nous fiuted golden columns, that helped to
reflect the glory of the coming day. Many
people describe Baalbec as being built of
white marble, but it is really iudurated
hardened limestone, that has retained the
wonderfully delicate detail of column and
peristyle as sharply as though 1t had been
finished yesterday. And it is a thrilling
thought that our obelisk in Central Park
may have Iooled-nay did, In its far-off
Egyptian infancy lOok-into the very Tenn
pie of the Sun, and saw our golden god at
Heliopolis thousands Of years ago.