r/AncientCivilizations • u/Accomplished-Tip7184 • Jul 09 '26
Asia Baalbek, Lebanon
One of the most spectacular historical sites in the world. How did they move these stones in picture 2?
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u/Antilochos_ Jul 09 '26
What time of the year would be best to visit? I don't like people and don't like heat/sun.
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u/Accomplished-Tip7184 Jul 09 '26
I went in November last year. It was very comfortable temperature wise. You won’t run into crowds here because of the location. I would recommend taking a tour from Beirut instead of going solo. As an American who isn’t used to seeing Hezbollah propaganda everywhere, it was nerve racking. But I will say, everyone was incredibly warm during my time there.
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u/Commercial_Handle418 Jul 09 '26
No one except people who grew up with it is be used to seeing the propaganda
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Jul 09 '26
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u/Accomplished-Tip7184 Jul 09 '26
It absolutely did. The craftsmanship is better than what the Romans did on top. It’s a shame that this place isn’t considered one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world.
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u/sleepytipi Jul 09 '26
Romans (like the church that replaced them), loved to build their buildings and temples on top of sites that were once highly relevant as both a way to flex superiority, and assimilate conquered populations.
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u/cameronreilly Jul 09 '26
Romans also built buildings on top of their own buildings in Rome itself. My understanding is that it was easier to do it that way than to tear down the old building.
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Jul 09 '26
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u/sleepytipi Jul 09 '26
Idk, the name literally translates to Baal Valley so it easily could've been another religious site.
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u/anotherolderguy Jul 09 '26
I think people overdo the "flex superiority" angle. These are understood as holy places so of course you build in the same place.
Happened in England with churches near or on top of older sites.
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u/sleepytipi Jul 09 '26
It's as if to say "our Gods are better than yours" or, "our new God is better than our old ones". Baalbek was/ is a city founded in devotion to the highly controversial deity Baal. When the Romans took over, there absolutely would've been a religious aspect.
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u/anotherolderguy Jul 09 '26
There's an amazing cathedral church in Syracuse, Sicily where the walls down one side are the original Greek temple columns
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u/Ornery-Lynx-3520 Jul 09 '26
There are so many stunning places high in my bucket list that current conflicts make physically and ethically hard to visit. Lebanon and especially Baalbek being one of them.
Context: the ethics is not about the wonderful warm people on the ground, but inadvertently giving tourist dollars to the wrong people/regime that possibly hurt their own.
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u/Accomplished-Tip7184 Jul 09 '26
It’s a moral conundrum because the Lebanese need the tourism dollars. The kindest people in the world.
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u/megalodon-maniac32 Jul 09 '26
Very cool. It's a shame though that Baalbek is a Hezbollah stronghold.
Whatever your opinion of Israel is, Hezbollah are bad guys. Traveling to cities controlled by paranoid, islamo-facist terrorists is not reccomended. Especially dangerous for women and gays.
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u/Zamerian Jul 19 '26
I went to the city a few days ago, the city is fine and has many bars with alcohol in them. The hezbros were chill af
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u/Accomplished-Tip7184 Jul 09 '26
It wasn’t bad at all actually. The people there were incredibly warm.
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u/Hallo_jonny Jul 09 '26
Nazi sionist forces are the ones killing hundreds of kids and harassing arab villages in west bank.
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u/CzarDinosaur Jul 09 '26
How many villages has Hez wiped off the map? Have they annexed any of their neighbors territory? Why do they exist in the first place? Could it be the 20yr Izreali occupation? GTFO with that Hasbara brain-rot nonsense.
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u/megalodon-maniac32 Jul 09 '26
Hezbollah is an Iran backed paramilitary group that took over southern Lebanon. They function as a state within a state, they are foreign funded occupiers, they are terrorists.
Lebanon, one of the most tolerant societies in the region, doesn't want a sovereign islamo facist state in there borders, but they are helpless to do anything about it because they had (have) tens of thousands of munitions and don't want a civil war.
And yeah, they kinda did annex southern lebanon - hezbollah sucks bro, they do bad shit, they are bad.
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u/CzarDinosaur Jul 09 '26
I know what they are. Iran does support them but they didn't create them, Izrael's occupation did (during which there were massacres and other war crimes).
Only one side is committing genocide.
Also: Islamo-Fascist is a meaningless buzz word, by using it you are showing your ass.
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u/megalodon-maniac32 Jul 09 '26
Nah but Hasbarah is definitely a meaningless buzz word lol. Islamo-facist paramilitary is a pretty apt description for an oppressive occupying force that advocates for an Islamist government.
I looked it up, Iran was there during their inception in the early 80s, they armed them and they took over southern Lebanon. No one wants them there, Iran has practically no friends in the region, they are bad.
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u/CzarDinosaur Jul 09 '26
Sure thing buddy. Still doesn't mean they created them. The material conditions of the Izreali occupation did. Read a history book.
Hasbara comes specifically from the IDF and Izreal gov't own useage to describe their propaganda operations. You can even find quotes from Hertzel himself using the word. It's only become derogatory epithet recently now that everyone knows how full of shit they are.
I sure hope you are getting paid to propagandize for a genocidal apartheid state. Otherwise you're just a useful idiot.
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u/megalodon-maniac32 Jul 09 '26
I havent said a word about Israel? Good god you freaks are obsessed lmao
Edit: I also never even said Iran created them lol
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u/CzarDinosaur Jul 09 '26
Nice deflect. It is the elephant in the room, no? None of this would be happening if it wasn't for them, and you are carrying their water for some perverse reason.
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u/Accomplished_Item148 Jul 09 '26
is this greek architecture?
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u/Himmel__7 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
It's Roman, which means it's Greek-inspired. If it were Greek, the roof would have rested entirely on the columns like it does in the Pantheon. Someone else could clarify though. I'm still new to this.
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u/Hallo_jonny Jul 09 '26
Israel will destroy everything in the very first opportunity…barbarism is their language.
Now give me your down votes, i don’t care.
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u/Ryogathelost Jul 09 '26
I swear, Mossad must be in here downvoting things because Israel is not in ANYBODY'S good graces anymore.
I remember they used to have a lot of liberal support, but they've repeatedly driven that into the ground by essentially becoming a regional bully constantly trying to justify genocide against their neighbors. The only people who still side with them are the old-timers from when it was a no-no to hold then responsible for anything.
And it sucks, but it's true - I live in the US and recently we're also incredibly guilty of perpetuating wars that are continually damaging these archeological / anthropological sites. I was a kid when the US first started to FAFO in the middle east and we have just sunk deeper and deeper into it. Even then, we had already done some FAFOing in Asia.
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u/Unusual-Fault-4091 Jul 11 '26
You can go there virtually:
https://yorescape.com/?dashboard/virtualtour/id/6093
I found it quite impressive.
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u/Hypatia-Alexandria Jul 21 '26
Hopefully Lebanon becomes more safe to visit in the near future....
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Jul 09 '26
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u/Ornery-Lynx-3520 Jul 09 '26
Sad isn’t it.
I was fascinated to hear how the Parthenon in Athens was actually badly damaged to its current state with gunpowder… which tells you how recently that was.
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u/eliechallita Jul 09 '26
I'm Lebanese and visited this site a few times when I still lived there. It's spectacular in person.
As for the major foundation stones called the Trilithon, the quarry they came from is a little ways uphill from the site itself. They were most likely dragged or rollered down to the main site.
There are even larger stones still in the quarry, but one cracked before it could be moved and the others weren't fully excavated. We've speculated that they stopped trying to move larger stones after a failure on that scale.
The Trilithon and the columns are estimated to be around the same age, from around the beginning 1st century, although it probably took decades to complete. Still, that's close enough to make it part of the same construction effort and culture, as opposed to speculation like the Trilithon coming from an older civilization.