Baalbek: enduring megalithic mystery

Much has been written about the site of Baalbek, the most controversial of ancient places on the planet. Some scientists call it the "Baalbek terrace." This is a huge platform, built of giant blocks, weighing up to 360 tons each, with special holes on the sides of the platform. Archaeologists are still puzzled about its purpose.

Baalbek is an ancient temple complex, which, unfortunately, has been almost destroyed. It is located northeast of Beirut at an altitude of 1130 m.

Acquaintance with Baalbek begins with Propilei - the front staircase with columns. After going through the columns, you get into the hexagonal yard. You can also see the once majestic temple of Jupiter, which is now almost completely ruined.

However, the most attractive and mysterious for people interested in ancient history is the “Baalbek Terrace” - the megalithic structure, on which the Temple of Jupiter was later erected. The design is simply gigantic in size. Three of its most incredible in size blocks are called Trilithon of Baalbek. Each of them is approximately 21.3 meters long, 4.8 meters high, 4 meters wide, and weighs about 800 tons. The blocks fit perfectly together. The remaining blocks of the terrace are smaller, 400 tons each
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Not far from the ruins of Baalbek you can see the "Southern Stone". Its weight exceeds 900 tons. After the excavations near the Southern Stone, another one, almost identical in size and shape, was found.
According to ancient Arab legends, this complex was the property of Nimrod. The legends said that Nimrod ordered the giants to recreate the temples destroyed by the flood. According to another legend, Baalbek was built on the orders of Adam's son, Cain. He settled in the city of giants, which then fell upon the wrath of God.

Let’s explore the steps of the Temple of Jupiter. Scientists are puzzled over the strange technology of making these steps. The lowest of the 3 spans consists of very large stone blocks. It is not clear why it was necessary to perform such time-consuming actions to move the giant blocks, then to carve steps in them. Then they suggested that these stones were remnants of a megalithic terrace, in which the Romans later made the steps for their needs. This assumption was confirmed.

In a huge temple complex, made of limestone, 2 tall granite columns can be seen. Perfectly polished to “mirror shine”, columns of more than 5 meters in height are carved from a single piece of granite. According to the testimony of some geologists, the nearest quarry where you can get this stone is in Egypt. Who and how delivered this stone from 1,200 km away? What technologies were used in the manufacture of these columns? When were they built: before the construction of the megalithic terrace or after?

Not far from Baalbek itself there is a quarry from which huge stone blocks were extracted. Here one can see two more blocks, even bigger than Trilithon in size.

In recent years, in the course of diggings under the so-called “Southern Stone”, a new megalithic stone weighing about 1,700 tons has been found! Surprisingly, the quarry is not wide, but deep. Megaliths have to be delivered for a considerable distance (1-1.6 km) from here to the construction site, and risen to a height of several meters! It seems that the builders of the megalithic part of Baalbek had no difficulty with gravity at all.

In conclusion, it is important to mention that there are many similar monuments throughout our planet and they follow a similar pattern - the older the monument, the larger the size of the stone blocks - megaliths, and the more fantastic the technologies of construction and stone processing.

Who built the Megalithic Baalbek? Why did the ancients erect such huge complexes? What was their functional purpose? What knowledge and technology did they use?

There are no answers to these questions yet, but knowing the true history of past civilizations can give us a global understanding of the ways of human development, an awareness of our real place in history and help avoid the fatal mistakes of the past.

“Monuments and archaeological pieces serve as testimonies of man's greatness and establish a dialogue between civilizations showing the extent to which human beings are linked.” Vicente Fox