Kamouh el Hermel, the Pyramid of Hermel (also known as God's Pyramid, House of El, the Funnel of Hermel or Needle of Hermel) is an ancient

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

located south of

Hermel Hermel ( ar, الهرمل) is a town in Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. It is the capital of Hermel District. Hermel is home to a Lebanese Red Cross First Aid Center. Hermel's inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims. There is an ancie ...

Baalbek-Hermel Governorate french: Baalbek-Hermel , settlement_type = Governorate , image_skyline = Baalbek (4594513263).jpg , image_caption = Baalbek , image_flag = , image_seal = , image_shield = , image_ ...

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 ...

Location, description

The pyramid sits on top of a hill that is clearly visible from a distance and has been fenced off to prevent damage.Anus, F., La protection des Monuments historiques en Syrie et au Liban, Syria, Volume 13, Issue 13-3, pp. 293-299, 1932.
/ref> Despite this, the monument was heavily vandalised by locals in 2000–2018, all the four faces of the base being covered with graffiti and no serious measures being taken by the authorities for its conservation. It is between and high and sits on a base measuring around with three steps made from black

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

. On the base site two massive limestone blocks weighing between and . The blocks are around high and wide and are crowned by a pyramid measuring some high. Some sections of the monument were restored in 1931. A relief on the north side depicts two

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

, possibly caught in a

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

trap. On the east side is a carved image of a boar being attacked by

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

s and

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...

ed. The south side is badly damaged but shows an image considered possibly to be a bear. The relief on the west side shows two

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

attacking a

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

Shepherd Neolithic archaeological site

Evidence was found of a Shepherd Neolithic archaeological site in the area around the monument, on the south and west of the hill. The site was discovered and a collection of flint tools used during the Neolithic Revolution was made by

Lorraine Copeland Lorraine Copeland (born Elizabeth Lorraine Adie, 1921April 2013) was a British archaeologist specialising in the Palaeolithic period of the Near East. She was a secret agent with the Special Operations Executive during World War II. Early life ...

and Frank Skeels in 1965. Materials recovered included blade-butts with scraping edges or notches, borers, cores (one with a twin edge) and small flakes. Some pieces were vaguely bifacial. The flints found were in a grey or chocolate-brown colour with some having a shiny patina.

Modern identification

The pyramid has been suggested to date to the first or second century BC due to similarities with

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

of tower tombs of the late

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

era at

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...

in Syria. It was considered by

William McClure Thomson William McClure Thomson (31 December 1806, in Springdale, Ohio – 8 April 1894, in Denver, Colorado) was an American Protestant missionary working in Ottoman Syria. After spending 25 years in the area he published a best-selling description of wha ...

to possibly have been of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

construction; however, the lack of inscriptions puzzled him as he thought the ancient Greeks to be a ''"scribbling generation"''. Thomson also entertained the notion, along with Charles William Meredith van de Velde that the construction may have been

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...

René Dussaud René Dussaud (; December 24, 1868 – March 17, 1958) was a French Orientalist, archaeologist, and epigrapher. Among his major works are studies on the religion of the Hittites, the Hurrians, the Phoenicians and the Syriacs. He became curator ...

later suggested that although the reliefs resembled the

Ishtar Gate The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon (in the area of present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq). It was constructed circa 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was pa ...

, the edifice was likely a monument to the hunting prowess of a member of Syrian royalty from the first century BC.Dussaud, René., Mémoire de M. Paul Perdrizet sur le monument d'Hermel (Syrie), Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Volume 81, Issue 4, pp. 342-343, 1937.
/ref>

Gallery

File:93.Kamoa el-Hermel (profils et details).jpg, Kamouh el Hermel described in the early 1850s, by van de Velde File:92.Kamoa el-Hermel (monument dans la plaine de Riblah.) .jpg, Kamouh el Hermel described in the early 1850s, by van de Velde File:Kamouh el Hermel pyramid, south of Hermel, Lebanon LOC matpc.09458.jpg, Kamouh el Hermel, between 1898 and 1946 File:Kamuat el Hirmil showing restoration work in progress LOC matpc.15483.jpg, Kamuat el Hirmil showing restoration work in progress, 1920 File:Kamuat el-Hirmel LOC matpc.13444.jpg, Kamuat el-Hirmel, 1925

References

External links

Hermel Pyramid on Wikimapia.org

Kamouh Hermel video on YouTube

al-hermel.org (in Arabic)

Hermel Pyramid on discoverlebanon.com

Qâmoûaa el Hermel on geographic.org

Images of Qâmou el Hermel on Lebanoneguide.com
{{Shepherd Neolithic sites Buildings and structures completed in the 1st century BC Hermel District Great Rift Valley Archaeological sites in Lebanon Populated places in Lebanon Beqaa Valley Shepherd Neolithic sites Pyramids in Asia Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Western Asia Tourist attractions in Lebanon Hellenistic sites