Baalbek

When I visited Lebanon in 2009, I managed to visit almost all of the major tourist sites with the exception of one – Baalbek. Baalbek is known for its complex of Roman ruins, which are some of the largest and best preserved outside of Rome.

Baalbek is located in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, which I had visited earlier this month to see the town of Zahle. Baalbek is only an hour north of Zahle, and seems to be the end destination for buses in the Bekaa Valley. The two hour journey from Beirut only costs $4, and once again took me up through some very high mountains before descending into the valley, is significantly colder than Beirut due to the elevation.

While I got a good view of the Bekaa Valley’s terrain from my previous visit, it was a lot more scenic this time around due to its surrounding mountain ranges being blanketed in snow. To the west is Mount Lebanon, Lebanon’s massive mountain range that runs down the center of the country, and to the east are the Anti Lebanon Mountains, which mark the Syrian border.

Mount Lebanon

Anti Lebanon Mountains

As I’ve said, the main attraction of Baalbek is its Roman ruins, which consist of two massive temples. Baalbek has been inhabited since about 300 BC, originally by the Greeks who called it Heliopolis. Its largest temple, the Temple of Jupiter, was completed by the Romans in 60 AD and its lesser temple to Bacchus were completed soon after.

There is a sizeable walled courtyard in front of the Temple of Jupiter, filled with intricate carvings, columns, and alcoves.

Me in the Great Court

While the Temple of Jupiter was once a massive and surely impressive-looking architectural feat, unfortunately only 6 columns remain of its original 54, along with its foundation.

Temple of Jupiter Ruins

The Temple of Bacchus however, is almost entirely intact.

Temple of Bacchus Exterior

Inside the Temple of Bacchus

The site includes two small museums inside of the ruins themselves, which trace their history from the Greek and Phoenician times to the Ottoman Empire and the 20^th Century. It was definitely worth it to visit, and I was glad I finally got to see it after missing it in 2009.

My friends and I then walked around the town of Baalbek itself for a bit, which truthfully doesn’t offer too much in terms of tourist attractions. The town is almost all Shia Muslim, and had a more Islamic character than Beirut with fewer bars and most women wearing headscarves.

View of Modern Baalbek

One nice feature we did find though was a very pretty Shia mosque that was covered in blue tiles and contained a gilded dome. The mosque seemed to have been built in a Persian style, and looked different from every other Sunni mosque I’ve seen so far.

Shia Mosque in Baalbek

We headed back to Beirut around sunset, as the Bekaa Valley would probably get a lot colder at night. The nice thing about Lebanon being such a small country is that so many of these short day trips are possible, and round-trip transportation costs less than $10 and takes only a few hours.