Baalbek: mosaic of influences

Five years ago I visited Lebanon. It was a trip that would always be in my memory no matter what. Charbel – I had known him a year at that time - became my guide for two weeks, showing me his country as it was with all positive and negative sides. I decided for myself that Baalbek was one of the places that I absolutely had to visit.

The road was going south-east. It became twisty in the Lebanese Mountains and then again straightened up down in the Bekaa valley. Slow turn and we were going to the north towards Baalbek. Along the way we were stopped frequently by the military posts checking passports and the trunk of a car. The landscape was changing drastically. Lebanese vineyards and small villages disappeared as we moved further. We saw more bad roads and poor houses as we reached the area that used to be the source of hashish, opium and stolen cars. The territory was controlled by Hezbollah – radical Islamic group. Our driver highly discouraged us from taking any photographs. There was no trace of European influence anymore: all the signs were strictly in Arabic, people wore traditional dress and no women were seen on the streets.

As we reached Baalbek we had to wait a short period of time till the next guide could take over our little group of two. While waiting a short ride on a camel became the perfect start of an exciting journey. Following the guide we walked up towards the grand complex of temples, ancient ruins and trilithons. First settled at the end of the 8^th millennium BC, Arabs built the first sanctuary in Baalbek area, followed by the Roman temples and Christian churches. After the area became part of Islamic Empire the temples became a fortress used for resisting Crusades. With the conquest by the Ottomans the importance of Baalbek declined till second half of the 19^th century (when tourism increased). Baalbek represents the mix of multiple cultures, traditions and architectural styles. They have been incorporated throughout the complex and coexisted for centuries.

We visited three temples: the sanctuary of Jupiter, temple of Bacchus and temple of Venus. The sanctuary if Jupiter had only six surviving columns. These colossal columns were standing on a giant pedestal, surrounded by ruins. Temple of Bacchus was in much better condition: the majority of the structure was maintained up to the roof level. Smaller round temple of Venus had numerous sculptural relieves of the Roman Gods and Arabic writing.

As Lebanon itself, Baalbek is a mosaic of religions, ethnicities and cultures that had shown their impact on the land with architecture. Political preferences and social statuses add more diversity to the already boiling “pot of flavors” in Lebanon. The country sits between Islamic and Christian worlds, rich and poor, neutral and radical. Fifteen-year civil war that happened there in 1975 turned most of the country to rubble and cost 150,000 lives. There are still buildings in Beirut that have huge holes and missing floors – they are meant to be preserved to remind future generations of what might happen if another war starts.