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 ...

archaeological site, in

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...

region of Lebanon.UNESCO World Heritage Site
/ref> The temple complex is considered an outstanding archaeological and artistic site of Imperial Roman Architecture and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. This monument to

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...

is one of the best preserved and grandest Roman temple ruins; its age is unknown, but its fine

ornamentation An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

can be dated to the second century CE.

History

The temple was probably commissioned by Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (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 church ...

. 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 a German expedition excavated two of the large temples and began reconstructions on the site. In 1920, the

State of Greater Lebanon The State of Greater Lebanon ( ar, دولة لبنان الكبير, Dawlat Lubnān al-Kabīr; french: État du Grand Liban), informally known as French Lebanon, was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic ( ar, ...

was proclaimed and protections and repairs of the site were mandated by the Lebanese government. In the mid-1970s the Lebanese civil war 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 UNESCO World Heritage Site. 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, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

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 ...

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 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 wall ...

flanking two levels of niches on each side. The parapets are decorated with dancing Maenads, supporting the attribution of the temple to

. The interior of the temple is divided into a nave 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 measured j ...

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 w ...

had slid following the

1759 earthquakes In Great Britain, this year was known as the ''Annus Mirabilis'', because of British victories in the Seven Years' War. Events January–March * January 6 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis. * January 11 &ndas ...

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