The Temple of Bacchus is part of the

Baalbek Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) 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 Greek and Roman ...

temple complex located in the broad Al-biqā (Bekaa Valley),

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 the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

.UNESCO World Heritage Site
/ref> The temple complex is considered an outstanding archaeological and artistic site of Imperial Roman Architecture and was inscribed as an

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 1984. This monument to

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

is one of the best preserved and grandest Roman temple ruins; its age is unknown, but its fine ornamentation can be dated to the second century CE.

History

The temple was probably commissioned by Roman Emperor

Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius ( Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatori ...

(r. AD 138-161). No information was recorded about the site until a 4th-century Greek conquest, by which point the temple would likely have been closed due to the

persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire began during the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina ( Jerusalem), when he destroyed a pagan temple for the purpose of constructing a Christian chur ...

. When the complex fell into disrepair, the Temple of Bacchus was possibly protected by the rubble of the rest of the site's ruins. It was not until 1898-1903 that this was then made official by a German Expedition excavated two of the large temples and began reconstructions on the site. In 1920 The State of Greater Lebanon was proclaimed and protections and repairs of the site were mandated by the

Lebanese government Lebanon is a parliamentary democratic republic within the overall framework of confessionalism, a form of consociationalism in which the highest offices are proportionately reserved for representatives from certain religious communities. The ...

. In the mid-1970s the

Lebanese civil war The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

broke out and protections of the site ceased as Al-Biqā became a stronghold for Palestinian and Syrian forces. In 1984 the ruins at

were inscribed as a

. Preservation of the site began in the 1990s following the end of the war. The German Archaeological Institute's Orient Department has done a number of archaeological excavations and research on The Temple of Bacchus and the entire temple complex. The site is continually being researched and assessed, such as documentation of reliefs and sculptures, archaeozoological research on fauna in the ruins, urban development and its relationship to Baalbek.

Architecture

The temple is 66 m long, 35 m wide and 31 m high, making it only slightly smaller than the Temple of Jupiter. The podium on which the temple sits is on an East-West axis. The peripheral wall is adorned by a colonnade of forty-two unfluted Corinthian

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...

s with Ionic bases, nineteen of which remain upright. There are eight columns along each end and fifteen along each side —nearly in height. These were probably erected in a rough state and then rounded, polished, and decorated in position. The columns support a richly carved

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, which includes an

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can a ...

with a three-banded frieze that is decorated with alternating bulls and lions and

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

ornamented with geometric and floral patterns. Inside, the

cella A cella (from Latin for small chamber) or naos (from the Greek ναός, "temple") is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek or Roman temple in classical antiquity. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings, of a hermit's or ...

is decorated with Corinthian

pilasters In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

flanking two levels of niches on each side. The parapets are decorated with dancing

Maenads In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids, ...

, supporting the attribution of the temple to

. The interior of the temple is divided into a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

and a

adytum The adyton ( , 'innermost sanctuary, shrine', ) or ( Latin) was a restricted area within the cella of a Greek or Roman temple. The ''adyton'' was frequently a small area at the farthest end of the cella from the entrance: at Delphi it measur ...

or sanctuary on a platform raised above it and fronted by 13 steps. The entrance was preserved as late as the 16th century, but the keystone of the

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of ...

had slid following the 1759 earthquakes; a column of rough masonry was erected in the 1860s or '70s to support it. The earthquakes also damaged the area around the

soffit A soffit is an exterior or interior architectural feature, generally the horizontal, aloft underside of any construction element. Its archetypal form, sometimes incorporating or implying the projection of beams, is the underside of eaves (t ...

's famed inscription of an eagle, which was entirely covered by the keystone's supporting column. Some historic Roman coins depict the structure of this temple along with Temple of Jupiter. The Temple is enriched by some of the most refined reliefs and sculpture to survive from

antiquity Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to: Historical objects or periods Artifacts *Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures Eras Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...

. There are four sculptures carved within the peristyle that are believed to be depictions of

Acarina Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evi ...

which would make them the first recognizable representations of mites in architecture.

Gallery

File:Lebanon, Baalbek, Columns.jpg, File:Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek 2.jpg, File:Lebanon, Baalbek, Ancient temple complex of Roman Heliopolis.jpg, File:The Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek (VII) (5491786945).jpg, File:Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek6.jpg,

Notes

Bibliography

* * * Jessup, Samuel. ''Ba'albek (Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt)'' Ed. Appleton & Co. New York, 1881

* * at "A Proposal for an Integrated Risk Preparedness Strategy." * * * * *

External links