A Shadow of Itself. At its peak, Heliopolis of Phoenicia (for there were... (Baalbek, Lebanon)
A Shadow of Itself. At its peak, Heliopolis of Phoenicia (for there were many cities bearing the same name) was a bustling Roman colony of 100,000. That’s roughly 20,000 people more than live in the city today and its streets were thronged with pilgrims drawn from all over the Eastern provinces of the Empire and beyond, who were bound for one of the city’s four temples, Bacchus, Jupiter, Venus or Mercury, which echoed to the sound of the supplications of thousands of worshippers every day. Today, they are abandoned. Mercury has been reduced to its foundations, Venus was badly damaged by earthquakes and has suffered subsidence which threatens its existence. Bacchus, which makes the Parthenon look like a trial run, still attracts admiring glances and of Jupiter, the largest temple the Romans ever built, only the mind-boggling podium and six massive pillars remain. Thanks to Baalbek’s proximity to the Syrian border and Lebanon’s 40 years of instability, these great temples are usually deserted. You will not find the hordes that throng Athens or lumber around Ephesus, in their “My wife went to Paris and all she bought me is this lousy t-shirt’ and cargo short ensembles, crying children, sunburnt Swedes or drunken delegations from Dorchester. You may see canoodling couples amongst the rocks and occasionally, you’ll come across foreigners, Brazilian-Lebanese back in the Old Country, a European or two, usually scruffy backpackers or history buffs (both wearing sandals, the latter with socks) and even the odd pilgrim, Iranians or Iraqis, in Baalbak to visit the glittering shrine of Sayyida Khawla and for whom Jupiter is an afterthought. Sometimes, Baalbak’s abandon saddens me, for its temples are magnificent and deserve to be as oversubscribed as any ancient site. At others, especially when my only companion is the wind, I realise that selfishly, I like them this way, as for a moment, their emptiness allows me to pretend they belong only to me.
by wsinghbartlett / Instagram