Baalbek Megaliths

Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Now we're heading inland, east, to the Bekaa valley to visit the Baalbek temple complex, one of the most amazing structures of antiquity. Since ancient times there have been many conflicts here and now it's restless here. For example, we're now passing refugee camps. Finally, Baalbek. Black and red flags belong to the group that controls the city. It is quiet in the city itself, but it was recommended not to leave the city. The antique hotel we settled in. The interior here has not changed, probably since the beginning of the 20th century, and on the roof you can see traces of recent hostilities. But at the moment everything is calm and nothing will stop us from inspecting Baalbek temple complex. It's assumed that this is how this complex looked in the Roman era. The diagram shows a hexagonal rotunda, a large courtyard with an altar, the temple of Jupiter, from which only six giant columns remained, 19 meters tall, and many fragments with wonderful stone carvings. The temple of Bacchus, which is considered to be the best preserved example of Roman architecture. Its size is smaller than Jupiter's temple, but the height of the columns is approximately the same. And finally, the temple of Venus, where tourists are not allowed, and from which little has remained. It is believed that almost everything was built, with the exception of the roof on the temple of The history of this place is extremely eventful. About 10,000 years ago there was a sanctuary of the Neolithic period. They discovered it when they made this excavation in the center of the temple courtyard. At a time when the Phoenicians owned the region, there was a temple dedicated to Baal, which is where the name of the city comes from. The first mention of Baalbek dates back to the time of Alexander the Great, 332 BC. By that time, Baalbek had already been the largest religious center. Further, the city passes under the rule of the Ptolemies, rulers of Egypt, then the Roman era begins. The construction of temples began at the beginning of our era, and ended with the collapse of the Roman Empire. Under the Byzantines, when Christianity became the state religion, and pagan shrines were destroyed everywhere, the temple complex was desecrated and destroyed. Basilicas were built here. After the Byzantines, the Arabs, Crusaders, Turks, hordes of Tamerlane repeatedly dismantled the ancient masonry for the construction of fortress walls, castles, mosques. And until now, as we have already seen, there are conflicts in this region. Traces of modern small arms can be seen on the columns of the Temple of Jupiter. This area was shaken by several powerful earthquakes. The first researchers appeared here in the early 18th century, and a century later, the first restoration work was carried out, and in the end, we see what we see. The place is amazing, they write about it in books, show it in films. You can find a lot about Baalbek ruins on the internet. But the most mysterious and intriguing part of the Baalbek complex, which still causes controversy among historians and architects, and what most tourists come to say, perhaps, is the megalithic foundation of the Temple of Jupiter, which is also called the Baalbek Terrace. This is the place where the largest stones that have ever been used in construction are located, and we will try to consider this part of the complex more closely. So what is called a megalithic foundation? This is a series of large limestone blocks surrounding the base of the Temple of Jupiter from the north, the western, and the southern sides. On a three-dimensional reconstruction are all the Baalbek megaliths without the foundation and surrounding structures. Perhaps the eastern side also exists, but it's hidden under the cyclopean staircase of the Temple of Jupiter. On the western side, on top of the megalith's base, there are three largest stones, so-called trilithons. The size of the trilithons is 20 meters long, about 5 meters wide and 4 meters high. The weight of each trilithon is about 800 tons. Unfortunately, neither photo nor video can convey the scope of this colossal structure, but the comparative dimensions can be seen and felt on a similar block in a quarry a kilometer away from the complex. The length of small blocks is about 9 meters, the weight from 250 to 400 tons. It should be noted that all the other blocks in the complex have much less weight and did not go beyond the boundaries of several tens of tons. Megaliths are based on a foundation of several rows of small blocks going into the ground. On megaliths, traces of the instrument which they were cut down with are visible. It's something like a large bickaxe. In the end, the blocks were supposed to be different from the which we see in the three-dimensional reconstruction. In fact, only blocks under trilithons were processed this way. On the other walls, the work is still not finished. On the northern side, the stones are very much damaged by the influence of the external environment, but on the southern side, the blocks remained underground and were excavated in the 20th century. And on this part of the foundation, one can consider an amazing and intriguing detail how these megaliths are joined. At the edges of the blocks, there is a chamfer made in the form of several faces and the shape of the chamfer is the same on both blocks. The facets are processed almost with jewelry precision and in some places even polished. The quality and accuracy of work can be seen at this notch in a fraction of a millimeter. The shape of the chamfer corresponds to the final shape of the blocks. It is clearly seen that the chamfer was made before joining so that all the corners of one block perfectly match the others. That is, the builders were interested not only in the accuracy of the joint itself, but also in the ideal position of not yet processed blocks relative to each other. On the northern side, the blocks are docked in a similar way, but the chamfer is virtually not preserved due to severe erosion. Trilithons weighing 800 tons are also docked precisely. The gap between the docks is fractions of a millimeter and is almost no longer visible from a few meters. Unfortunately, strong erosion on the stones does not allow us to say whether there was a similar chamfer or not. On some blocks there is damage and you can see the plane joint itself. Traces of the tool with which the joint plane was machined are clearly visible. By the way, it's very similar to the tool that was used for stone carving and resembles a tooth chisel that modern sculptors use. Some joint surfaces are almost polished. There is another feature that is striking. Megaliths and trilithons have a much higher degree of erosion and look more ancient than the remains of Roman temples. That is, the megalithic part of the foundation was built long before the Roman structures. This is especially noticeable in the northern part of the wall, where megalithic blocks are connected to the base of a large courtyard built in the Roman era. This part of the complex was not protected from weather conditions and it's clearly seen that the surface quality of the base block of the large courtyard is significantly different from the surface of the ancient megalith. It is noticeable that the edge of the block on the left was processed less accurately than the chamfer at the junctions of megaliths on the southern side, which we have already seen. The whole structure indicates that the huge and old blackened megaliths were built in small blocks during the construction of a large courtyard by the Romans. That is, it is possible that the megalithic foundation with trilithons existed before the Roman buildings and for some reason were not completed. This is also indicated by the fact that the megaliths of the northern side are located at the distance from the base of the temple of Jupiter and are not involved in the project of the Romans. And it's quite obvious that the megalithic base was intended for the installation of trilithons on it, as it had already been done on the western wall. Perhaps here a giant megalithic podium was conceived for the construction of a structure more significant than the temple of Jupiter. The trilithons for this cyclopean construction can be seen in a quarry nearby, one kilometer west. These are two huge blocks, each weighing more than 1,000 tons. The blocks were cut out of rock in an inclined position. Most likely the limestone formation was located in this way, and the strength of the block was maximum. Their weight exceeds the weight of the trilithons installed in the base, and most likely these are blanks that were supposed to acquire exact shaped dimensions after transportation and finishing the installation on the podium. On the megaliths of the base there are a large number of square holes. There are also on the trilithons and the rocks in the quarry. Their purpose is unknown. Perhaps they were used for rigging or for scaffolding. Recently another blank was excavated for a giant block. It is possible that a blank for the fourth stone is visible under the existing stone. Perhaps there are still similar uncut workpieces. In other words, the scale of construction was truly industrial. The mystery is in the way which the trilithons were separated from the rocky base on the southern stone. The base is covered with garbage, and it's difficult to consider anything here, but on the northern trilithon the bottom surface is clearly visible, but it's impossible to understand how the builders made such a flat bottom line. It can be assumed that the builders, having separated the block from the rock, carefully processed the lower surface of the trilithon and the rock base under it, but why they lowered the block to its original position and started processing the rock under it again, it is not clear. Perhaps a natural, almost perfectly flat crack in the rock was used, or the builders used an unknown method. And finally, we come to the main mystery, the main issue that causes the most heated debate among all those involved in the study of the Baalbek complex. How did blocks of this size and mass rise from the quarry, move and install with such accuracy? There's no secret that from ancient times, people dealt with megaliths. These are ancient menhirs, dolmens, the famous stonehenge. In ancient Egypt, giant granite obelisks were made, moved and installed, weighing up to 300 tons. In the entire history of Egypt, there were made about two dozen such large obelisks. In the quarries of Aswan, there is still an unfinished obelisk, which is considered to be the largest of the existing ones. Its weight is estimated at 1500 or more tons, but most likely it's only a blank for the obelisk, which cracked during processing. The weight of the finished product would be significantly lower. Since the time of the Roman Empire, obelisks began to be exported from Egypt and set in Europe and then around the world. There are many examples of and probably the most significant are worth noting. This is the movement of the blank for the Mussolini obelisk in 1932, weighing 560 tons. The Alexander column in Russia, weighing 600 tons, installed in 1834. And the largest stone ever moved by man, a thunderstone for the pedestal of the monument to Peter I, also in Russia, in the year 1770. And I would like to dwell on the last example in greater detail, because the principles of operation of all devices for moving were known in the ancient world, and the task of moving is similar to what we see in Baalbek. The weight of the thunderstone was originally about 1600 tons. After processing, its weight which approximately corresponds to the weight of the Baalbek block. A project was carefully prepared by engineer Karburi to move the thunderstone. A special road was built, 40 meters wide. Transportation was carried out in the winter on frozen rock. Bali developed services for turning stones, special rails with metal balls made of a special alloy. To change the direction of movement, the stone was lifted with special jacks and moved to a rotary device. The winches themselves were designed in such a way that the movement of the stone was enough for the efforts of only 64 people. Sometimes accidents occurred. The stone fell and got buried in the ground. Over the course of four months, a land path of about 8 kilometers was covered. Then, having overcome the water part of the path, the stone was put in place. But as it was established in Russia, it should be noted that at the final stage, it turned out that the pedestal is too large for the monument that they were going to erect on it. And in the end, the stone was reduced by almost two times. Nevertheless, the task of moving the largest stone was successfully accomplished. But it should be noted that this event was of national importance. It required a huge budget. A lot of human labor. Medals were issued in its honor. Coins were minted. There was widespread media coverage, both in Russia and in Europe. Similar events at other times were considered the highest achievements, documented in detail and covered. But if you believe in the official version of the Roman origin of the megalithic foundation, then why do Roman documents contain descriptions of the movement of Egyptian obelisks of a much smaller mass and there is not a word about the construction of the Baalbek foundation? Why did the Romans, famous for their bureaucracy, not use the description of their stunning exploits for the glory of the empire? It's as if in the Soviet Union, they suddenly forgot about the flight of the first man into space and the Americans would completely ignore a visit to the moon. But there is one more circumstance. All the mentioned megalithic movements were single and did not require the exact connection of one megalith with another. And in Baalbek, this most difficult part of work was done. No one had done anything like that before and there is no description of the technology. There are only speculative and very sketchy assumptions. But if the Romans did not build Baalbek, then who? In Jerusalem, 600 kilometers to the north, inside the base of the wall surrounding the Temple Mountain, lies a block that is similar in size and weight to the Baalbek one. The first place of the construction of the Jerusalem Temple took place under the semi-mythical ruler Solomon, about 1,000 years BC, who, according to legend, invited Phoenician architects. It's also known that before the arrival of Alexander the Great, in Baalbek, there was a from which it's sometimes concluded that the megalithic foundation was built by the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were wonderful sailors and merchants, but megalithic buildings in their cities did not exist and their technical capabilities were much more modest than the Roman ones. Even if we assume that the megaliths were able to be moved to the construction site, it's obvious that the most difficult part of work is fitting. There are suggestions that megaliths were dragged with clay, but there are no visible grease residues under trilithons. There is no destruction under the trilithons and it's impossible to look at the lower face, but under the megaliths of the base there is such a sight. There are no traces of clay or something like that. Perhaps everything was washed away and weathered over many centuries, but the most amazing thing is that no traces of dragging are visible. There are only intact traces of processing by some kind of hand tool. What was the technology of accurate joining of megaliths and trilithons which was used by ancient builders? Now there are no ideas. Who built Baalbek, how, and what should we build on a megalithic basis according to the original design remains a mystery. It is worth recalling the statement of Mark Twain after visiting Baalbek. All these great walls are as exact and shapely as the flimsy things we build of bricks in these days. A race of gods or of giants must have inhabited Baalbek many a century ago. His contemporary, English priest John Gakey, impressed by the inhuman scale of Baalbek, wrote in his book The Holy Land in the Bible. We're so accustomed to thinking of ourselves and the present generation all over the world as more advanced than the ancient, that it's well to have our pride abated by such miracles as this at Baalbek. And now, after almost a century and a half, the same words can be repeated.