DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4642#0058
PORTION OF THE EASTERN PORTICO, BAALBEC.
The Great Temple, with all its connected buildings, stands at the western extremity of the City, and
just within the modern walls. A wall of moderate height, and flanked by square towers at intervals,
encompasses the remaining portion of the City. The interior is covered with the ruins of private
and public buildings.
The chief entrance to the Sacred Enclosure, in its original state, was a grand Portico of the
Corinthian order, looking to the East, and approached by a broad and stately flight of stone steps.
This entrance is now walled across, and flanked at the extremities by two square towers, evidently
a later work, being built up with fragments of cornices and columns. Two Courts lead the way to the
Great Temple itself. The first is a Hexagon of 144 feet diameter. From this there was an ascent
into a vast Quadrangle of 347 feet in length, by 317 feet in breadth. Both Courts were evidently
surrounded with buildings, probably for the dwellings of the priests; but those of the Hexagon are
in such a state of dilapidation, as to defy any distinct conjecture. Those of the Quadrangle being
in a less ruined condition, give evidence of a succession of arcades and covered recesses of various
sizes; probably, Exedra?, or places of lecture for the priesthood and students, similar to those in the
public groves of Greece; some of them squares of 43 feet, and some semicircular of 30 in diameter.
The whole, with its noble columns, cornices, and elaborate sculpture, forming a scene, in its day of
early beauty, to which the architectural world has no parallel.
The roofs of those chambers, which were all open to the Court, have fallen in, and have long since
been in dust; but the exterior walls, from which they sprang, remain, and in sufficient preservation
to give an idea of the immense labour bestowed on their decoration. A row of niches for statues
extends the whole length of these walls, which are ornamented with rich mouldings, and divided by
pilasters. There are similar niches in the buttresses between. Wild herbs have now sprung on the
summit, and added their green and picturesque luxuriance to the general ruin. A foundation wall is
discoverable in the middle of the Quadrangle, but whether of a temple, it is hopeless to ascertain.
Still advancing to the westward, the stranger enters upon a grand Esplanade, a parallelogram of
230 feet by 118. This Court had arches similar to the former along its western and northern sides.
On the southern side stood a row of magnificent Corinthian columns, surmounted by a highly sculptured
architrave, making the whole height sixty or seventy feet above the epistylia. Of this colonnade six
only are now erect; the remainder lie around them. The whole Esplanade being artificially raised
above the level of the surrounding country, they form a very conspicuous object among the ruins.
The magnitude of the materials strikes the eye with scarcely inferior effect to the general decoration
of those splendid reliques of ancient genius. " I cannot help," says one of our latest and most intelligent
travellers, " making a few observations on one mass of ruins, the imposing grandeur of which peculiarly
struck us. I allude to that remnant of a Colonnade, of which there are six columns standing. The
beauty and elegance of those pillars are surprising. Their diameter is seven feet, and we estimated their
altitude at between fifty and sixty, exclusive of the epistylia, which is twenty feet deep, and composed
of immense blocks of stone, in two layers of ten feet each in depth; the whole most elaborately carved
in various devices. The space originally included by those pillars was 104 paces long by 50 broad."1
The magnitude of the stones generally used in these buildings is extraordinary. In the west wall there
are three stones which together measure 182 feet, with proportional depth. The largest which the Artist
had ever previously seen were those in the Egyptian Temple of Dendera, 29 feet.2 Some of the stones
in the walls of Jerusalem were also of great size. But, " these are, perhaps, the most ponderous
masses that human skill ever moved into a wall; and here they are raised between twenty and
thirty feet from the foundation."3 The largest stone of the three is 62 feet 9 inches long, the two
others are about 60 feet each.4
1 Irby and Mangles' Travels. - Roberts's Journal. 3 Richardson's Travels. 4 Pococke.
The Great Temple, with all its connected buildings, stands at the western extremity of the City, and
just within the modern walls. A wall of moderate height, and flanked by square towers at intervals,
encompasses the remaining portion of the City. The interior is covered with the ruins of private
and public buildings.
The chief entrance to the Sacred Enclosure, in its original state, was a grand Portico of the
Corinthian order, looking to the East, and approached by a broad and stately flight of stone steps.
This entrance is now walled across, and flanked at the extremities by two square towers, evidently
a later work, being built up with fragments of cornices and columns. Two Courts lead the way to the
Great Temple itself. The first is a Hexagon of 144 feet diameter. From this there was an ascent
into a vast Quadrangle of 347 feet in length, by 317 feet in breadth. Both Courts were evidently
surrounded with buildings, probably for the dwellings of the priests; but those of the Hexagon are
in such a state of dilapidation, as to defy any distinct conjecture. Those of the Quadrangle being
in a less ruined condition, give evidence of a succession of arcades and covered recesses of various
sizes; probably, Exedra?, or places of lecture for the priesthood and students, similar to those in the
public groves of Greece; some of them squares of 43 feet, and some semicircular of 30 in diameter.
The whole, with its noble columns, cornices, and elaborate sculpture, forming a scene, in its day of
early beauty, to which the architectural world has no parallel.
The roofs of those chambers, which were all open to the Court, have fallen in, and have long since
been in dust; but the exterior walls, from which they sprang, remain, and in sufficient preservation
to give an idea of the immense labour bestowed on their decoration. A row of niches for statues
extends the whole length of these walls, which are ornamented with rich mouldings, and divided by
pilasters. There are similar niches in the buttresses between. Wild herbs have now sprung on the
summit, and added their green and picturesque luxuriance to the general ruin. A foundation wall is
discoverable in the middle of the Quadrangle, but whether of a temple, it is hopeless to ascertain.
Still advancing to the westward, the stranger enters upon a grand Esplanade, a parallelogram of
230 feet by 118. This Court had arches similar to the former along its western and northern sides.
On the southern side stood a row of magnificent Corinthian columns, surmounted by a highly sculptured
architrave, making the whole height sixty or seventy feet above the epistylia. Of this colonnade six
only are now erect; the remainder lie around them. The whole Esplanade being artificially raised
above the level of the surrounding country, they form a very conspicuous object among the ruins.
The magnitude of the materials strikes the eye with scarcely inferior effect to the general decoration
of those splendid reliques of ancient genius. " I cannot help," says one of our latest and most intelligent
travellers, " making a few observations on one mass of ruins, the imposing grandeur of which peculiarly
struck us. I allude to that remnant of a Colonnade, of which there are six columns standing. The
beauty and elegance of those pillars are surprising. Their diameter is seven feet, and we estimated their
altitude at between fifty and sixty, exclusive of the epistylia, which is twenty feet deep, and composed
of immense blocks of stone, in two layers of ten feet each in depth; the whole most elaborately carved
in various devices. The space originally included by those pillars was 104 paces long by 50 broad."1
The magnitude of the stones generally used in these buildings is extraordinary. In the west wall there
are three stones which together measure 182 feet, with proportional depth. The largest which the Artist
had ever previously seen were those in the Egyptian Temple of Dendera, 29 feet.2 Some of the stones
in the walls of Jerusalem were also of great size. But, " these are, perhaps, the most ponderous
masses that human skill ever moved into a wall; and here they are raised between twenty and
thirty feet from the foundation."3 The largest stone of the three is 62 feet 9 inches long, the two
others are about 60 feet each.4
1 Irby and Mangles' Travels. - Roberts's Journal. 3 Richardson's Travels. 4 Pococke.