6. The Mystery of the Stones at Baalbek (continued)

We begin at the main acropolis by considering first this bird's eye view of how it might have looked in Roman times, before its fortification by the Muslims. A monumental staircase leads up to the entrance or Propylaea, beyond which we find the Hexagonal Courtyard, the Great Courtyard, the Temple of Jupiter, the smaller Temple of Bacchus, and the much smaller Temple of Venus. Note the unusual fact that the acropolis of Baalbek is not aligned to the cardinal points of the compass.

The Temple of Venus can be dealt with briefly. Situated in what is now a field of rubble, its former elegance can no longer be seen, and only four of its ten columns remain standing. Being outside the fortified acropolis, this temple was swallowed up by an Arab town, to such an extent that the German Archaeological Mission had to remove five metres of debris to clear the first step of the monumental staircase at its entrance. The remains of the temple were dismantled and re-erected in the early 1930s, but they now threaten to collapse again.

We now enter the main acropolis via the Propylaea - what we see here is a reconstruction by the German archaeological expedition in 1905. The original staircase was destroyed by the Arabs to fortify the site and they dismantled the 12 granite columns which they re-used for defensive purposes. Only the bases of those columns survived, and they bore inscriptions identifying their Roman origin.

Having come through the entrance, we find ourselves in the middle of the impressive Hexagonal Courtyard, which is a unique feature for a temple of this period (it may well have been a concession by the Romans to local customs and traditions). Roman inscriptions are found here in abundance, but the purpose of the Hexagonal Courtyard remains unknown.

We now proceed into the Great Courtyard...

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