Baalbec

an ancient city of Syria. It occupied a beautiful irrigated valley in the anti-Lebanon Mountains, on the highway from Tyre to Palmyra. It is about thirty-four miles northwest of Damascus. The Greeks called it Heliopolis, both names meaning "City of the Sun." Baalbec was an important trading post of the Phoenicians. A part of the acropolis wall, dating, no doubt, from a day of Tyrian supremacy, yet stands. Three stones raised twenty feet above the ground are of enormous size. The smallest of the three is sixty-three feet long and thirteen feet thick. The marvel is how these worshipers of Baal ever quarried such stones or got them into position.

In the long centuries of the present era the Romans crowned the acropolis of this city with three temples, the ruins of which are still the marvel of antiquarians. The great temple of Jupiter stood on a magnificent elevated platform of three or four acres in extent. Stately stairs rose up to a portico adorned with costly pillars. The great court of this immense temple was square. It was surrounded by a peristyle of fifty-four columns, each sixty-two feet high and seven feet in diameter at the base. At last accounts a few of these columns were still standing. A second building, The Temple of the Sun, though small in comparison with the first, is still larger than the Parthenon. Though not so perfect in its proportions, it must have been a more imposing edifice. Still a third ruin is that of the Circular Temple near by. It was built in exquisite Corinthian style, evincing wealth, leisure, and good taste. The money for such buildings came from the caravan trade. The labor was extorted no doubt from soldiers in time of peace, or from slave. In 1400 Baalbec was plundered by Timur on his way to Damascus. Frequent earthquakes have completed the work of destruction. The marvelous ruins of this city, now almost forgotten, indicate vast commercial resources. Under beneficent rule and intelligent public policy the prosperity of Syria will return. The soil and possibilities are there. The new cities may not occupy the sites of the old cities, but there are dawning indications that a prosperous people may one day regard the ruins of Baalbec as interesting antiquities, and not as now, the symbol of utter desolation.

From the accounts of Oriental writers, Baalbec seems to have continued a place of importance down to the time of the Moslem invasion of Syria. They describe it as one of the most splendid of Syrian cities, enriched with stately palaces, adorned with monuments of ancient times, and abounding with trees, fountains, and whatever contributes to luxurious enjoyment. After the capture of Damascus it was regularly invested by the Moslems, and after a courageous defence at length capitulated. The ransom exacted by the conquerors was 2,000 ounces of gold, 4,000 ounces of silver, 2,000 silk vests, and 1,000 swords, together with the arms of the garrison. The city afterwards became the mart for the rich pillage of Syria; but its prosperity soon received a fatal blow from the caliph of Damascus, by whom it was sacked and dismantled, and the principal inhabitants put to the sword (748 A. D.). It continued, however, to be a place of military importance, and was frequently an object of contest between the caliphs of Egypt and the various Syrian dynasties.-Britannica.