Iaat ( also transliterated as Ya'ad, Yaad, Yaat, or Iaad) is a town and municipality located approximately 5 kilometers northwest of

Baalbek Baalbek (; ; ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of S ...

, in the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to th ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. The town is famed for its

Corinthian column The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order, which was the earliest, ...

, the Iaat column. This is a single column of unknown date (but probably dated from

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

), approximately halfway between Baalbek and

Qasr el Banat Qasr el Banat is Arabic for Palace of the Ladies or Girls Castle and may refer to: Places * Gasr Banat, and archaeological site near Bani Walid in Libya * Qasr al-Banat, the ruins of a 12th century residence in the city of Raqqa * Qasr el Banat, ...

, with a cartouche on the 6th drum but no inscription.

History

Ottoman tax registers between 1533 and 1548 indicate the village had 180 households and 4 bachelors, all Muslims. In 1838,

Eli Smith Eli Smith (September 13, 1801 – January 11, 1857) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. Biography Smith was born in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (née Whitney) Smith. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from A ...

noted ''Ei'at'' as a

Metawileh Lebanese Shia Muslims (), communally and historically known as ''matāwila'' (, plural of ''mutawālin''; pronounced as ''metouéle'' in Lebanese Arabic), are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role ...

village in the

Baalbek District Baalbek District () is an administrative district in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate of the Republic of Lebanon, having the city Baalbek as its capital. It is by far the largest district in the country comprising a total of . Major towns of the d ...

. The town also has a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

minority.

Iaat column

The column stands 18 metersIaat
Lebanon.Com (59.1 feet) and is installed on a four-step base. The location of the Pillar is 4 miles (6 km) northwest of the Baalbek ruins, between the towns of

and Chlifa. At one point, a

plaque Plaque may refer to: Commemorations or awards * Commemorative plaque, a plate, usually fixed to a wall or other vertical surface, meant to mark an event, person, etc. * Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military p ...

was installed on the northern side of the monument. However, it has been removed and no other history is known of the column. The column is believed in local legend to be related to

Helena, mother of Constantine I Flavia Julia Helena (; , ''Helénē''; – 330), also known as Helena of Constantinople and in Christianity as Saint Helena, was an ''List of Augustae, Augusta'' of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. She was b ...

. The British scholar George F. Taylor classified it among a group of

temples of the Beqaa Valley The Temples of the Beqaa Valley are a number of shrines and Roman temples that are dispersed around the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. The most important and famous are those in Roman Heliopolis. A few temples are built on former buildings of the Phoen ...

and noticed that the position of the Iaat column was equidistant between the temples of

and

. Whilst technically not being a temple, Taylor suggested that the column might have been placed by the Romans where it is as a

victory column A victory column, or monumental column or triumphal column, is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a heroic commemoration, including victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned ...

to mark the site of a great ancient battle. He also noted a

cartouche upalt=A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the bottom., Birth and throne cartouches of Pharaoh KV17.html" ;"title="Seti I, from KV17">Seti I, from KV17 at the ...

on the sixth cylinder of the column.

References

Bibliography

External links

Iaat at localiban.org

(archived link)

{{Roman Archaeological sites in Beirut & Lebanon Archaeological sites in Lebanon Monuments and memorials in Lebanon Roman archaeology Beqaa Valley Corinthian columns

History

Iaat column

See also

References

Bibliography

External links