In Baalbek I easily located the Palmyra Hotel which overlooked the ancient Roman ruins. It was full of faded grandeur with threadbare oriental carpets and enviable lamps, its old colonial atmosphere resonating with its equally old retainers. It was a delightful place in which to stay. A Hezbollah stronghold during the war and closed to foreigners with the exception of kidnap victims such as kidnap victims the town was now welcoming actual visitors.It was Good Friday and the local population of Christians and Muslims were vying with each other for the surrounding airwaves. A loud-speaker announced the Friday prayer from the Shia Mosque and the Imam was in full flow. His words sounded rebel-rousing but my basic Arabic would not stretch to understanding them so he may not have been quite as fierce as he sounded. Later that evening I would witness a re-enactment of the Road to Calvary staged along the street by local Christians. A young Jesus laden down with wooden cross and dress in the long dishdashe, a still popular form of dress for men in many Arabic countries, was flanked by two Roman centurions . They gently flayed the fallen Jesus as he stumbled up the hill while the priest and his flock chanted at the stations along the way. It was both strange and fascinating to witness this co-habitation of religions made even more poignantly with the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter acting as a backdrop to the enfolding drama.
Jupiter was the chief Roman Sky God and God of Lightening who is associated with the establishment of the principles of Roman religion, such as that of sacrifice. His combined emblems of the thunderbolt and the eagle became the most common symbol of the Roman military. The temple dedicate to him at Baalbek was 290 feet long and 160 wide and was surrounded by 54 columns seven feet in diameter and seventy feet tall of which only six remain. Alongside it lies the Temple of Bacchus originally dedicated to Venus/Astarte, although there is a Temple to the goddess further away near the entrance to the site.
The Temple of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine who was Dionysus to the Greeks, although overshadowed by that of Jupiter is larger than the Parthenon in Athens and is considered one of the best preserved Roman temples in the world. As such it is included along with many others in Baalbek as a World Heritage Site. Its interior decoration includes a frieze depicting lions and bulls, and there are scenes of gods and goddesses on its stone ceiling. The Phoenicians were the first to build temples on this site and prior to the Roman conquest by Pompey in 64BCE the area was viewed by them as a center of vice where human sacrifice and sacred prostitution were practiced. Baal was the Phoenician god of thunder and or Sun god and similar to Aramean god of thunder Hadad. During the Lebanese Civil War the area was used by Hezbollah as training ground for local recruits, the ubiquitous form of human sacrifice.
I joined an English couple and their twelve year old son for dinner at the Palmyra Hotel. Travelling in a similar fashion to myself they had come from Syria by service taxi. Their son, a well-travelled young man was not impressed by the heavy traffic they had encountered in Damascus and said he would rather stay at home or go to Ireland from where his mother’s family hailed. His dislike of traffic and his concern for the environment gave me hope for the future and allowed me to feel less of an eccentric. I toyed with the idea of joining a couple of fellow guests who were E.U bureaucrats on their way to Damascus but lacking a visa I decided that Syria deserved more than a cursory visit and that I would save that pleasure for another time. I crept off early the next morning and took a passing mini-van back to Beirut from where I planned to visit Jbail otherwise known as Byblos. From there I would journey to the Adonis/Astarte Grotto in Afqa on Easter Sunday, the day the Lord is risen.
To be continued…..
