The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-04-26
CITY OF THE SUN GOD.
Marvellous Ruins to Be Found in
Asiatic Turkey.

From the London Standard,
Baal 'Bek, the city of the sun god,
lies at the foot of Anti-Lebanon. In
order to reach it you must ride many
miles over bare brown plains, across
ridges hoary with olive and green with
mulberry, between massive hills
streaked like the zebra. Suddenly out
of the silent fields spring mighty walls
and pillars-giants who lift their heads
into the amber sky. The sight of these
superhuman columns, beside which the
tallest trees look like Blades of grass.
nils one with amazement 1t is not
alone their size and strength and
beauty that inspire wonder, but their
very existence in such a solitude, far
from the track OF mankind. We of the
nineteenth century-meek dependents
on rail and steam-are so in the habit
of associating cities with modern
means of communication that we are
astonished at the presence of massive
ruins in the heart OF a valley remote
from river and sea.
AS we draw near our wonder grows
for out of the thick grove, whose dark
branches sweep and moan like a troub-
led sea around the foot of imperishable
cliffs, there rise new walls and new
columns, massive, ornate, stately even
in their heaped confusion. This is the
Temple of the Sun-a relic OF pagan
worship that has looked unmoved on
the birth and death OF dynasties and
faiths. Led as by some enchantment,
we pass through the grove, whose dark
avenues. overgrown with weeds, have
echoed with the shrieks OF the victims
Of Baal, Lord Of the Heavens. There,
in the shadow of that poplar. may have
stood the molten image, the human
hSure with a bulls head and out
stretched arms, from which children
dropped into the fiery lap. 'They
caused their sons and daughters to
pass through the fire" "They made
themselves molten images, even two
calves, and made a grove, and wor-
shipped all the hosts of heaven, and
served Baal." 1t is not easy to as
sociate these bloody rites with such
splendor of design and colossal work.
| manship, yet it is beyond dispute that
these walls have seen the worship Of
Baal, that here incense has been con-
sumed in his honor, that his priests.
clothed in rich vestments, have trod-
den these paths, that here mothers
have looked on dry-eyed at the sacri-
flee of their children, while the screams
of the burning victims were deadened
with flute and drum.
Six columns, graceful and gigantic,
| carrying a broken frieze-six columns
each 20 feet high and ~ feet in dame
ter-are all that remain of this marvel
of paganism. The grove, whose tall
poplars look like grass growing out of
| assures in the fallen walls, Is silent.
| There is no voice, or any that an
swereth." We leave the ghostly shade,
and, walking down a quite country
lane, reach the gate that leads us into
| the temple. A Turkish guard admits
us, and in a moment we are plunged
| into the gloom of a vast vault like
| passage. The fiickering glare of torches
| reveals the huge blocks of stone that
| shut out air and sky. Emerging from
| these vaults, we arrive at the Acropo-
| lis. and wander in growing amazement
| among the ruinous heaps of stone, so
monstrous in size, so perfect in shape,
so rich in carving as to almost raise
! doubts of their human origin. 1t is
! not that the ruins are of great extent.
| Those at Karnak-famillar to every
| tourist in Egypt-and at Palmyra cover
a wider area. Their strength, the mas
sive simplicity of their proportions and
the elaborate beauty of their orna =
ment are the things that move wonder
and admiration, and make every mod
ern palace and cathedral dwindle into
the insignificance of paltry and ephe-
neral structure. The west wall con-
tains stones each from 81 to fi feet
long, IS feet thick, and as many broad
What Titans hewed and placed these
enormous blocks that oppress Us with
the insignifcanoe of the Church of St
Peter at Rome and the meaness of the
Coliseum? What genius conceived