![]() ![]() Also found in the Altar Court are two basins supplied by running water. ![]() In the middle of the court are two large altar towers with staircases leading to platforms at the top, unusual for a classical Roman sanctuary, and likely reflecting local Eastern traditions. This space would have been a hive of activity in AD 215, with people offering prayers and sacrifices, consulting the oracle, and meeting to discuss business, education, or politics. This is a large open area of over 10,000m², paved with bright white limestone, and surrounded by colonnades (comprising 130 columns made of dark red or grey granite) on three sides, with the great façade of the Temple of Jupiter towering above it on the fourth side. The tour begins in the atrium in front of the propylaea, the impressive entrance to the Sanctuary of Jupiter.įrom the hexagonal court, you pass into the most important space in the sanctuary, the Altar Court. IMAGE: Copyright of Flyover Zone Productions and German Archaeological Institute. Its hexagonal structure is unusual in antiquity, but this shape helps the court to serve two functions, acting as both a passageway and as a central space in its own right. The Hexagonal Court is an open space, c.30m in diameter, surrounded by a colonnade, behind which are several small rooms. Travelling up the huge staircase, rising almost 7m above the ground, to the covered portico of the propylaea – supported by 12 tall columns, each made from a single piece of rose granite brought over 1,000km from the quarries of Aswan in the south of Egypt – you pass through a large doorway into the Hexagonal Court. ![]() This is a wide, open space surrounded by a semicircular wall with deep steps on which people could sit and admire the vast propylaea (the grand entrance to the sanctuary) and the many altars, statues, and water features dotted around the plaza. The importance of water and the fertility it brought to the region was key to the development of the sanctuary at Heliopolis, which is situated at the highest point in the Beqaa Valley, near the sources of the Litani and Orontes rivers.Īt ground level, you find yourself in the atrium before the Sanctuary of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Heliopolitanus (‘Heliopolitan Jupiter, the best and the greatest’). Your visit begins with a bird’s-eye view of Baalbek and an introduction to the city and its surroundings. At its heart is the Temple of Jupiter, one of the largest temples in the Roman Empire. Baalbek Reborn offers a virtual tour around the temple complex at Baalbek. ![]()
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