Iaat ( ar, إيعات also transliterated as Ya'ad, Yaad, Yaat, or Iaad) is a town and municipality located approximately 5 kilometers northwest of
Baalbek, in the
Beqaa Valley of
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
. The town is famed for its
Corinthian column, the Iaat column. This is a single column of unknown date (but probably dated from
Roman times
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the 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 Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
), approximately half way between Baalbek and
Qasr el Banat, with a cartouche on the 6th drum but no inscription.
History
Ottoman tax registers between 1533–1548 indicate the village had 180 households and 4 bachelors, all Muslims.
In 1838,
Eli Smith noted ''Ei'at'' as a
Metawileh
Lebanese Shia Muslims ( ar, المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيين), historically known as ''matāwila'' ( ar, متاولة, plural of ''mutawālin'' ebanese pronounced as ''metouali'' refers to Lebanese people who are adherents ...
village in the
Baalbek District
Baalbek District ( ar, قضاء بعلبك) 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 ...
. The town also has a
Christian minority.
Iaat column
The column stands 18 meters
Iaat
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 Baalbek and Chlifa. At one point, a plaque
Plaque may refer to:
Commemorations or awards
* Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc.
* Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I
* Pl ...
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 ''Augusta'' (also known as Saint Helena and Helena of Constantinople, ; grc-gre, Ἑλένη, ''Helénē''; AD 246/248– c. 330) was an '' Augusta'' and Empress of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine th ...
.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 victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned with a victory symbol, such as a ...
to mark the site of a great ancient battle. He also noted a cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...
on the sixth cylinder of the column.
See also
* Heliopolis in Phoenicia
* Qasr el Banat
* Roman Phoenicia
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