The Bienville Democrat. [volume] (Arcadia, Bienville Parish, La.) 1912-1980, 1922-04-20


Society, Washington, D. CO.
Famous ruins and historic relics have
been shifted under new flags by the
World war just as have places of more
practical and less sentimental value.
And 50 it happens that the magnificent
ruins of Baalbek, the HeliOpolis of the
Graeco-Roman world and once the
greatest city of Syria, are now under
the administration Of the French.
French authority is the latest of many
national influences to be exercised over
these world-famous ruins.
Not many centuries after the Roman
Empire crashed and multiple states
rose in its place, the Arabs captured
Baalbek. The great temple had been
turned into a Christian church in the
DAYS Of Constantine. Now it was In
turn changed into a mosque. Tanner
lane pillaged the old temple site. Later
came the Turks, and it was under their
regime that the Western world first
learned of the stately ruins. Even
German influence was eyerted on the
place, for under the Turks German
psychologists excavated and partially
restored the temples.
The Baalbek temples are not minor
ruins Unexpectedly to most observers
they take one palm from Egypt's pyra'
mids; for in the walls at Baalbek are
the largest stones ever used by man
In erecting a structure-great mono
llths larger than freight car.
These ruins, properly speaking, are
known as Ell Kalla (Citadel) and are
composed of only two temples, and
they do not cover large area when
compared with other ruins in Syria
The Great Temple, or the Temple
of Jupiter, as it is called, had its main
entrance from the East. Here wide
flight of steps led up to the propylaea,
or vestibule, 10 feet above the gardens
and orchards that now surround the
ruins. This portico was open to the
east the full width of the stairs, anc
the worshipers used to enter between
rows of columns, on the bases OF three
of which are inscriptions stating thai
the temple was erected to the "grea
gods" of Hellopolis by Antoninus an(
Caracalla. At an early period TIT
Arabs converted these temples into
fortress, and to certain extent re
modelled them. The columns mentioned
were removed, the staircase taken up
and the material used to construct
solid wall where the columns had been
Arabs Blocked This Entrance.
Next came the hexagonal fOrecOur1
entrance into which was made b
means of a central doorway, with
smaller one on each side. This SINAI
court was surrounded by a colonnadt
and on four of the six sides by exedra'
porticos with stone seats. The Arab
have also blocked this three-fold e1
trance and converted the exedrae int
, Notifications, filling them with brio
masonry.
, After the visit Of the former Germa
emperor to these ruins, in 1898, a bod
of German excavators was sent
Baalbek. and worked there from 1876
to 1904. They not only dug down an
I removed the debris, but strengthene
4 weak parts, and, where necessary, the
t removed the Arabic work so as
! make the original plan more easl
comprehensive to the visitor.
The workmen built narrow stat
case where the broad old one ust
to be, tore away the wall construct
u over the. bases of the columns al
, opened an entrance through a gre
4 block of stone which was placed aero
. the central doorway into the forecou
9 so that today visitors enter as did {
j. Roman worshipers of old.
Proceeding inward one pass
through a triple entrance into t
e great court, or court of the altar.
# is about 440 feet long by 80 feet VIII
" The central portal, as we'll as one
A. the smaller side ones, has fallen
and the pieces which formed the arch
have been collected and laid togetll
on the ground below the place whe
! they had originally been.
;. Around this court, on three sid
emitting the west end, where sta
= case led up to the level of the Gre
= temple, are square and semcirru
exedrae, each of which contain ma
handsome inches for statues, Of viii