Vernon Parish Democrat., 1922-05-11

prepared by the National Geographic
Society, Washington, y. c.
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 so 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 exerted 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
liths 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 a 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 a 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, and
the wOrshipers used to enter between
rows of columns on the bases of three
of which are inscriptions stating that
the temple was erected to the "great
gods" of HeliOpolis by Antoninus and
Caracalla. At an early period the
Arabs converted these temples into a
fortress, and to a certain extent re-
modelled them. The columns mentioned
were removed, the staircase taken up,
and the material used to construct a
solid wall where the columns had been.
Arabs Blocked This Entrance.
Next came the hexagonal forecourt,
entrance into which was made by
means of central doorway, with a
smaller one on each side. This small
court was surrounded by a colonnade,
and on four of the six sides by exedrae
porticos with stone seats. The Arabs
have also blocked this three-fold en-
trance and converted the exedrae into
Notifications, filling them with brick
masonry.
After the visit of the former German
emperor to these ruins, in 1893, body
of German excavators was sent to
Baalbek. and worked there from 1901
to 1904. They not only dug down and
removed the debris, but strengthened
weak parts, and, where necessary, they
removed the Arabic work so as to
make the original plan more easily
comprehensive to the visitor.
The workmen built a narrow stair
case where the broad old one used
to be, tore away the wall constructed
over the bases Of the columns, and
opened an entrance through a great
block of stone which was placed across
the central doorway into the forecourt,
so that today visitors enter as did the
Roman worshfpers Of old.
Proceeding inward one passes
through triple entrance into the
great court, or court of the altar. 1t
is about 440 feet long by $40 feet wide
The central portal, as well as one of
the smaller side ones, has fallen in,
and the pieces which formed the arches
have been collected and laid together
on the ground below the place where
they had originally been.
Around this court, on three sides,
omitting the west end, where stair
case led up to the level of the Great
temple, are square and semicircular
exedrae, each of which contain many
handsome inches for statues, OF which, ]