![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/The_Acropolis_Baalbek_Holy_Land_%28i.e._Balabakk_Lebanon%29.jpg/300px-The_Acropolis_Baalbek_Holy_Land_%28i.e._Balabakk_Lebanon%29.jpg)
Heliopolis, fully Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Heliopolitana (Latin for the "Fortunate Julian Augustan Colony in the City of the Sun"), was a colony of the Roman Empire. It was also known as Heliopolis in Phoenicia to distinguish it from Heliopolis in Egypt. It was known to locals as Baalbek and it has since regained its historic name. Its ruins are a Unesco world heritage site[1]
History
Ancient Baalbek (under its Hellenic name Heliopolis) formed part of the Diadochi kingdoms of Egypt & Syria. It was annexed by the Romans during their eastern wars. The Italic settlers of the Roman colony "Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Heliopolitana" may have arrived as early as the time of Caesar but were more probably the veterans of two Roman Legions under Augustus, during which time it hosted a Roman garrison.
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(Heliopolis) consists primarily of the complex of the great sanctuary of Heliopolitan Jupiter and the so-called Temple of Bacchus which adjoins it to the S. They were built on imperial initiative, perhaps begun by Augustus himself. Enlargements and improvements were carried out over three centuries. The dimensions are vast and the decoration sumptuous. The architectural and decorative forms belong largely to the repertory of Roman art, but the plan (with its successive enclosures and the importance given to the courts), the cult installations, and the arrangement of the cellas conform to ancient Oriental traditions.On a single E-W axis almost 400 m long, the sanctuary of Heliopolitan Jupiter includes monumental propylaea, a hexagonal court, a large rectangular court, and the temple proper, where the cult idol was enthroned under a canopy in the cella.The sanctuary occupies an ancient tell, artificially enlarged by enormous works of terracing and masonry. At the W end near the N corner, the supporting walls contain three colossal quadrangular stones, called the "Trilithoi", each one nearly 20 by 4.5 by 3.6 m. Another even larger stone was left in a quarry at the foot of the hill W of the town. Two long vaulted galleries running E-W correspond at the basement level to the peristyle of the central court. They are open at the ends and joined by a transverse gallery. Some of their keystones carry Latin inscriptions. J.Rey-Coquais
Indeed the veterans of two Roman legions were established in the city (and region) of Berytus by emperor Augustus: the fifth Macedonian and the third Gallic.,[2] and Heliopolis from 15 BC to 193 AD formed part of the territory of Berytus. The population was mainly local in the second century under Hadrian with a few descendants of the Roman colonists and likely varied seasonally with market fairs and the schedules of the caravans to the coast and interior.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Baalbek-Bacchus-Details.jpg/200px-Baalbek-Bacchus-Details.jpg)
During Classical Antiquity, the city's temple to Baʿal & Haddu was conflated first with the worship of the Greek sun god Helios[3] and then with the Greek and Roman sky god under the name "Heliopolitan Zeus" or "Jupiter". The present Temple of Jupiter presumably replaced an earlier one using the same foundation. The presence of a huge quarry was one of the reasons for the Roman decision to create a huge "Great Court" of a big pagan temple complex in this mountain site, located at nearly 1100 meters of altitude and on the eastern Borders of the Roman Empire: it took three centuries to create this colossal Roman paganism's temple complex, called Sanctuary of Heliopolis.[4]
Notes
- ^ UNESCO: Heliopolis/Baalbeck
- ^ Roman Berytus: a colony of legionaries
- ^ Cook Arthur 550
- ^ Video-Panoramas of the Sanctuary temples at Discover Lebanon: Heliopolis temples
Bibliography
- Alouf, Michael. History of Baalbek Publisher American Press. Beirut, 1998 ([1])
- Cook, Arthur Bernard (1914), Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, vol. Vol. I: Zeus God of the Bright Sky, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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- Lohmann, Daniel (2010). Giant Strides towards Monumentality: The architecture of the Jupiter Sanctuary in Baalbek/Heliopolis. Bolletino di Archeologia [Bulletin of Archaeology], Special Volume, pp. 29–30.