El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-02-18

is also well known that Solomon had
city named Baalath. in which other
gods than Jehovah were worshipeo-
Indeed. it is said that Solomon, in order
to please his concubines, built temple
here and that he had a castle which he
gave as a present to BalkiS, the queen
Of Sheba-
BaaIbek was well known in the days
of the Phoenicians. and it was q great
city in the time of Christ. 1t was about
a hundred years after that. that the
finest Of the temples, the ruins of
which stiu exist, were constructed 1t
was when the Roman civilization was
still in the height Of its glory, and
when the emperors were building cities
in north Africa, IN Asia Minor and IN
other parts Of the world. They put up
the temples here in honor of Baa1, and
had in them smaller temples to Venus
and Bacchus. They Worshiped Baa1, the
god of the sun, as one of the greatest
Of their deities, although they had
other goods without number.
The God BaaI.
AS to the worship of Baal, there have
been gods of that name back almost TO
the beginning Of history. 1t is a ques-
ton. indeed, whether the word Baal did
not mean lord, being a general term for
male gods of various kinds. Later on
the Greeks considered Baal the goo Of
the sun. chasing him with the god rep
resented by Helios and the city Of He
uopolis in Egypt. The worship OF Baal
runs through the Bible. Samuel re-
buked the Israelites for. bowling down
to him. and Jezebel had four hundred
priests OF Baal who were coHfounded by
Elijah Indeed, 1t is a question whether
Beelzebub, or the devil, was not Baalze-
-E0 4Ia hnrEnTC
nicknames of the false gods Of Baal-
Here at Baalbek the finest statue
was of this god. It was of gold, and
1t represented beardless young man
clad in armour standing between TWO
golden bulls He held whip IN MS
right hand and a thunderbolt and some
ears Of corn in his left There were
also statues Of Mercury and Venus,
Hall Of Bacchus, and statues and
statuettes Of exquisite workmanship.
These images were destroyed by the
early Christians, who threw down parts
Of the temples and broke up the Aarv-
ings.
In the Great Temples.
It is impossible to give pictures of
the ruins and of the mighty temples as
they were in their wonderful beauty.
The ruins of themselves cover more
than ten acres, and the Great Temple
alone was about 500 feet long by $50
feet wide It had a roof upheld by
Corinthian columns, six of which are
still standing. These columns are 80
feet high and p feet in circumference
In entering the temples went up a
gigantic staircase, a great part OF
which has been destroyed, and came
into what is known as the forecourt,
which IS about geo feet from one side
to the other. the floor of which was
paved with mosaic.
We next went through another court
known as the court Of the altar, which
must cover five or six acres. It is a
mass of marble and granite, gigantic
columns and delicate carvings pefng
thrown helter-skelter together. Be
yond this and up a series Of steps are
the ruins Of the Great Temple, which
cover 1 venture, an area as great as
that of the capitol at washington. At
the left is the exquisite Temple Of
Bacchus, and everywhere are great
shafts Of marble so wonderfully carved
that they would be treasures in any
museum.
Wonders of Mechanical Engineering.
/ All this, however, gives nc Sdea OF the
constructors People wonder how the
mighty stones of the pyramids were put
! into place, and books have been written
to show how the obelisks were taken
! from the quarries to the sites where
they have served as monuments. The
work of this temple was a far greater
mechanical triumph. The materials for
it, including columns weighing hun
dreds Of tons, had to be brought up
the steep Lebanon mountains and car
! ried over passes higher than the tops
4 Of the Alleghenies. There. is granite
| here which came from far up the Nile;
! there are marbles from Greece, and
limestone blocks weighing huncreds Of
tons from the quarries nearby. The
| temple has walls so feet high, and the
mighty columns, seven feet in diameter,
and. including the pedestals, and capt.
/ tails, as tall as an eight story house
rest upon a platform which is more
! than so feet high. These mighty pill
/ lars are put up in three blocks, each 20
/ feet or more in height and seven feet
/ in diameter. They are so placed that
each looks like one solid block and the
erection was without the aid of ma
chinery.
Biggest Building stones.
In the walls of the temple foundation
are what are, I venture, the biggest
building blocks ever got out Of the
! quarry by man. One Of the walls, which
/ has been recently uncovered by the
/ Germans. here three great limestone
/ blocks each Of which measures 81 fee
/ in length. 13 feet in width and II feet
! in thickness. If such stones were placed
end to end il would take only aoou1
/ so Of them to make one mile, and Il
they were laid down between the capt.
! toll and the treasury at Washington
I they would fill the sidewalk of Penn
sylyania avenue with a wall reaching tC
the height Of the second stories OF The
| buildings on that street from one
{ structure to the other These stones
--oro hro,,oht f-nr,o o ~ ,.-t,ioln lie.