Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 114, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1913 — The FAMOUS CITY of the SUN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The FAMOUS CITY of the SUN

* SMONG the many ruins to be found in the east, those of Baalbek, in Syria, are second to*none In interest. During the last four years German archaeologists have been busy excavating there, and every visitor to the ruins owes them a debt of gratitude. They have not only dug down and removed many tons of rubbish and debris, thereby exposing the ruins to better view, but they have also strengthened ,the weak parts. It was not entirely a disinterested work, however,

for the Berlin museums now possess many of the finest examples of the earrings .found there. Baalbek is the name of a ruined city of ancient Coela-Syrla. signifying the “city of Baal,” the sun cod. The name was converted by the Greeks, during the Seleucldlan dynasty, Into its Greek equivalent, Heliopolis. It Is situated In latitude 34 degrees, 1 minute north, longitude 36 degrees, 11 minutes east, in the plain of Buka’s, at the northern extremity of a low range of bleak hills, about one mile from the base of Antilibanon, in * well watered and delightful locality, a little more than 40 miles northwest of Damascus. It was once the most magnificent of Syrian cities, full of paiaces, fountains and beautiful monuments.

These ruins are known as the Acropolis and are unique for their massiveness and for the great amount of both bold and delicate carving with which they are adorned. There is, Indeed, so much carving and such variety u to make one’s first visit bewildering. The temples being built on a flat plain, It was Important to raise them above the surrounding level to render them more imposing, and to that end there are vast substructures and vaults and passages supporting the shrines. The most Imposing was that of the great Temple of the Sun, which wgsxa rectangular building 290 feet by 160, having Its roof supported by a peristyle pf 64 Corinthian columns, 19 at each side and 10 at each end. Of these six are still standing. The circumference of these columns Is about 22 feet, and the length of the shaft about 58 feet; with pedestal, capital and entablature they measure about 80 feet In height. The great Temple of the Sun occupied a platform on the Acropolis about 1,000 feet by 450 feet. The main entrance of the temple was on the east Here a wide flight of steps led up to a portico 19 feet above the gardens and orchards that now surround the ruins. An Inscription on the great portico states that the temple was erected to the “Great Gods” of Hellopolls by Antoninus. Beyond the portico Is a hexogonal court through which a large gateway opens into the great square, at the west end of which is the temple on a lofty stylobate. Except the columns 4 mentioned, little of the great temple or of the buildings in front of it Is left standing, but the ground Is covered with their ruins. The vast size of the stones used In the substructures of the great platform Is remarkable, some of them being over 60 feet long and 12 feet thick. South from the great temple is a smaller one known as the Temple of Jupiter. It is smaller tn form, having Its peristyle and the walls of Its cells still mostly standing. Its dimensions are 227 feet In length by 117 feet in breadth, with 15 columns at the sides and 8 at each end. Both temples as well as the surrounding structures were built of limestone, in a richly decorated, somewhat fantastic Corinthian style. Besides these there stands at a distance of 300 yards from the others a circular building supported on six granite columns built In mixed lonic and Corinthian style. Nearby also are the remains of the Temple of Bacchus, famed for its magnificent carvings. Here are enormous slabs of stone elaborately carved with the beads of emperors and deities and Interwoven with floral designs, the whole forming a unique celling. The portal Is the gem of the entire edifice. The door posts are beauty

fully carved with figures of Bacchus, fayns, cupids, satyrs, and bacchantes, woven around which are grape vines and clusters of fruit, poppies and ears of wheat, all of which are symbolical of the revelling which the name of the temple suggests. This great doorway stands 43 feet high and 21% feet wide, while the carving of the posts lust mentioned covers a space about six feet wide. On both sides of this door stand graceful fluted columns forming the prostyle or portico, while the plain ones of the peristyle, wtrtch stands between them, seem to reflect their beauty. The mammoth stones contained in the inclosing wall of the Acropolis have been the marvel of engineers for ages. The lowest courses are of stones.of moderate dimensions, but at a height of 20 feet above the ground on the west wall is a row of three enormous stones, the shortest being 63 feet and the longest 65 feet in length, and each being about 13 feet high and 10 feet thick. They are the largest building blocks ever known to have been used by man. A still larger stone lies In the ancient quarry nearby, never having been detached from the rock beneath. This one is 70 feet long by 14 feet by 13 feet

At an early period the Arabs converted the temples Into the fortresses, and to this end, to a certain extent, removed them. Their work, however, has now been removed by the Germans. The.early history of Baalbek is involved in darkness, but it is certain that from the most distant times it had been a chief seat of sunworship, as Its name Implies. Augustus made it a Roman colony and placed there a garrison. Baalbek had an oracle held in such high esteem that in the second cen-

tury A. D. it was consulted by the Emperor Trajan prior to his entrance on his second Parthian campaign. Antoninus Plus (A. D. 138-161) built the great temple which the legend current among the modern inhabitants counts a work of Solomon. The piriform and substructures, however, are of a m«ch earlier date. This temple is said to have abstained a golden statue of Apollo, or of Zeus, which on certain annual festivals the chief citizens of Heliopolis bore about on their shoulders. When Christianity, under Constantine, became the dominant religion, the temple became a Christian church. In the wars .that followed the taking of the city by the Arabs, who sacked it in A. J>. 748, the temple was turned into a fortress. The city was completely pillaged by Timur in A. D. 1400. Both city and temple continued to fall more and more into decay under the misery and misrule to which Syria has been subject ever sfhee. Many of the magnificent pillars were overturned by the pashas of Damascus merely for the sake of the iron with which the stones were bound together. What the Arabs, Tartars and Turks had spared was destroyed by a terrible earthqtfhke in 1759. Baalbek is nohr an insignificant village with a population of about 2,000, more tVan half of whom are Christians.