The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-03-02

darkness had fled, and the full moon
was flooding the snowy peaks of Lee
Damon, and still against the mountains
of whiteness stood the six huge col
umnS, their glorious capitals Just COM
ing 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 has been 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
handiwOrk of men who never dreamed
that America existed.
The name Heliopclis Getty of the
SUM- is little confusing when used
in connection with the Baalbec of which
we are talking, because the former. YOU
will remember, is the name of the old,
cid city in the north of Egypt where
Joseph and Mary took the child Jesus
for safety at the time of the persecu-
ton of Herod. The story goes that the
Romans, who wnrshiped, among other
deities, the lord of the sun, Baal, stole
the golden god from the defeated Egyp-
tiaEs, and carried it far up north into
the mountains of Anti-Lebanon, in
Syria. There they built great acrop-
Oils on the foundations of much older
structures of the Phenicians. with tenn.
pies, courts and columns by the thou.
sands, and called it Heliopolis, the City
of the Sun. The tenacious natives con.
tinued, nevertheless, to use their own
lame for the place, Baalbec. Baal was
a sort of double divinity, both Jupiter
and the sun-beardless, life-szed fig
ure of solid gold, holding in his right
hand 4 whip Ito symbolic his driving
the horses of the chariot of the SUM, in
his left hand 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 sympat hize,
in part, with the symbol of their wor-
ship. Our camp was pitched in the
courtyard of one of the great temples.
For two weeks, without a 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 i'm,
posing 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. The moment the
first rose-colored 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,
trumpeters and choristers waiting and
watching, their faces turned to catch
the first flush upon the snow peaks,
which was announced by a mighty blast
upon hundred trumpets.
The moment the glowing edge ap.
peared above the eastern hills, 500
voices of the choristers broke into q
grand hymn to the sun-the god OF
day, the lord of life.
Speaking of the structures, an EN-.
inent writer upon such matters calls it
the "boldest plan ever attempted in
architecture" Nothing that | can say
or draw-alas!-will give you an idea
Of the overpowering immensely OF the
buildings, particularly the great Tenn
pie of the Sun, with its enormous huted
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 in
durated (hardened) limestone; that has
retained the wonderfully delicate de.
tail of column and peristyle as sharply
as though it had been finished yester-
day. And it is thrilling thought that
cur obelisk in Central park may have
looked-nay did, in its far-off Egyptian
infancy, look into the very Temple OF
the Sun, and saw our golden god at
| Heliopolis thousands of years ago.