Baalbek and Anjar...in the snow

Over the Lebanese mountain pass, heading to the astounding Roman ruins at Baalbek. our hired taxi has to stop to put snow chains on--a first for us and once-a-year type event. A flock of handy souls populate the police stop after which chains are required, ready to sell you a set, and/or to put them on for you, for a price.


We get to see the Temple of Jupiter in the snow--not a common sight. Here is new teacher Lauren from Texas, experiencing her first snow fall ever (while apparently about to be devoured). The temple is an enormous 290 X 160 feet, set on a podium 40 feet above the surrouding terrain and 22 feet above the courtyard--the largest religious building ever constructed by the Romans. It was built on top of gigantic pre-Roman stone blocks, some of which are 60 feet long, 14 feet high, and 12 feet deep, weighing 1000 tons! It is a big mystery how they were carved and placed there.


Here is Tom next to a couple of the remaining pillars, with the smaller Temple of Bacchus in the background. Bacchus, actually a temple to Venus, is the best preserved Roman temple in the world. So many gems in Lebanon! A good deal of the overhead bits between the outer columns and the outside wall of the temple are still in place, and feature carvings of famous people, notably Cleopatra (complete with asp).


The site was used as a holy place long before the Romans. The Phoenicians worshipped here at the time of Solomon.


We then went to on to Anjar, snow changing to rain. Anjar is one of the few known Umayyad cities, from the 8th century AD. The Umayyads were the first Moselm dynasty, and came to rule an empire from southern France to the Indus River.





We were frozen, and headed from there to yet another fabulous mezze meal at a nearby restaurant. The surrounding town of Anjar is home to thousands of Armenian refugees from Turkey, resettled in 1939.