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| Baalbek, Temple
Courts |
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Source:
Photographs of Charles Lee Feinberg. |
Baalbek Ruins with
Snow Covered Mountains
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Moving eastward, we now leave the six columns [of the Temple of Jupiter] . . .
and enter the vast quadrangular area known as the Great Court, our course being
that of the ancient devotees on passing out of the great temple. In front we see
in the distance the triple gateway with the hexagonal court, and in a direct
line another triple portal leading to the great portico. We pause in the great
quadrangle. Here, around the sides, are gems of ancient sculpture enough to
detain the artist for weeks. This court is four hundred and fifty feet from
north to south, and about four hundred from east to west . . . .There are eight
chambers with doors, eight rectangular alcoves with columns, four semicircular
dome-roofed exedra, two niches eighteen feet wide for colossal statues, one on
each side of the triple gateway leading into the hexagon . . . .The forty-four
columns which supported the roofs of these alcoves were of Syenite granite,
twenty-nine inches in diameter. As Wood found only the shafts of Syenite, he
inferred that the bases and capitals of these columns were of the native
limestone, the same rock with the rest of the temple-a very probable
supposition. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2, pp. 224-25.) |
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Baalbek Ruins |
Source:
Photographs of Charles Lee Feinberg. |
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Turning north, we pass along about one
hundred feet without finding traces of exedræ.
In the north-west corner there is first a
large chamber with a door, then a rectangular
recess with four columns in front, a part of
whose cornice is still unfinished, then a
semicircular exedræ, with a magnificent
groined roof supported by two columns. These
alcoves, as well as the successive
semicircular and rectangular exedra on the
north, east, and south sides, are lavishly
decorated with shell-topped niches, canopies,
rosettes, and arabesques of the most elaborate
and minute character. Here were statues
innumerable, which doubtless now lie buried
under the masses of débris which fill the
area. The entablature ran uninterrupted all
around the court, the frieze having rich
ornaments of pomegranates, grapes,
vine-leaves, and flowers. In one is a head
surrounded with a fan-like canopy of scaly
wings; in another a winged dragon. All are
decorated within and without with pilasters.
(Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2, p.
225.) |
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Source:
Photographs of Charles Lee Feinberg. |
Baalbek Ruins |
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On the east of the quadrangle is a triple
gateway, the broad portal now in ruins, being
fifty feet wide, with two side portals of ten
feet, leading into the hexagonal court. This
hexagon is two hundred feet in breadth, east
and west, and two hundred and fifty from north
to south. On the east and around the north and
south angles were rectangular exedra or
alcoves, with smaller rooms intervening. The
roofs of the alcoves were supported by twenty
columns, all now fallen. The effect of this
hexagonal court to one entering from the
eastern portico must have been impressive,
with its fine proportions and the glimpses of
the great peristyle beyond. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2, p. 225.) |
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South Wing of the Portico of the Great
Temple, Baalbek |
Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2, p. 223. |
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We have now reached the second triple
gateway, leading to the outer portico. There
is a central gateway seventeen feet wide, with
side arched portals ten feet wide. Passing
through, we find ourselves in the magnificent
portico, a worthy entrance to so splendid an
interior. This portico was approached on the
east side . . . by an immense staircase now
entirely gone, its materials having been used
in building the Saracenic fortress which
walled up the entrance. The floor is twenty
feet above the outside level, and the portico
is one hundred and eighty feet long by
thirty-seven feet deep, having twelve columns
in front, of which only the pedestals remain.
The columns were four feet three inches in
diameter . . . .The north and south wings, or
pavilions of this porch, are constructed of
cyclopean stones . . . .There are stones
twenty-four feet five inches long. In front,
near the bottom of each pavilion, is a door
leading to the vaults beneath in the
substructions. The top of each has been
rebuilt by the Saracens . . . .The wings are
ornamented with niches, cornices, and
pilasters. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2, pp. 227-28.) |
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See
Baalbek,
Bacchus
Temple,
Temple
of Jupiter,
Palmyra,
or
Damascus |
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