Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/193

Rh habitants put to the sword (748 A.D.). It continued, however, to be a place of military importance, and was frequently an object of contest between the caliphs of Egypt and the various Syrian dynasties. In 1090 it passed into the hands of the Seljuk princes of Aleppo and Damascus, who in 1134 were disputing its possession among themselves, and had to yield in 1139 to the power of Genghis Khan. He held the city till 1145, when it reverted to Damascus, and continued mostly, from that time, to follow the fortunes of that city. During the course of the century it suffered severely from one or more of the earthquakes that visited the district in 1139, 1157, 1170. In 1260 it was taken by the forces of Hulagu, who destroyed the fortifications; but, in the 14th century, it is again described by Abulfeda as enclosed by a wall with a large and strong fortress. Whether it was Baalbec, or, as others say, Cairo, that was, in 1367, the birthplace of Takkieddin Ahmed, the Arabic historian, he appears to have derived the name by which he is best known, El-Makrizi, from one of the quarters of the city. In 1400 it was pillaged by Timur in his progress to Damascus; and afterwards it fell into the hands of the Metaweli, a barbarous predatory tribe, who were nearly exterminated when Djezzar Pacha permanently subjected the whole district to Turkish supremacy. The ancient walls of the city are about 4 miles in compass; but the present town is, with the exception of some portions of its Saracenic fortifications and its two mosques, a cluster of mean-looking buildings, which serve only to bring out into greater prominence the grandeur of the neighbouring ruins. These consist of three temples, usually known as the Great Temple (and it well deserves the name), the Temple of Jupiter, Apollo, or the Sun, and the Circular Temple. The Great Temple (vide Plan), which would seem at one period to have been a kind of pantheon, is situated on a magnificent platform, which raises it high above the level of the ground, and extends from east to west a distance of about 1100 feet. The portico is at the eastern end, and must have been reached by a grand flight of steps. It is 180, or, including the exedræ or pavilions, 260 feet from north to south. A threefold entrance leads into the first court, which is hexagonal in shape, and measures about 250 feet from corner to corner. A portal 50 feet wide, flanked on each side by a smaller aperture of 10 feet, gives admittance to the great quadrangle, which extends from east to west for 440 feet, and has a breadth of 370, thus including an area of between 3 and 4 acres. On all sides, except the eastern, where the "stately stairs" led up to the temple front, this court was surrounded with exedræ of various dimensions, enclosed by costly pillars, and adorned with numerous statues; but statues and pillars and steps are now all involved in a common confusion. The peristyle of the temple proper was composed of fifty-four columns, the front line consisting of ten and the side line of nineteen each. The height of the shafts was about 62 feet, and their diameter 7 feet at the base and about 5 feet at the top. They were crowned with rich Corinthian capitals, and supported an entablature of 14 feet in height (Col. Chesney says 11 feet 9 inches). Most of them were formed of three blocks, united without cement by strong iron dowels. Only six of these columns still stand at the western end of the southern side—three having fallen since the visit of Wood and Dawkins in 1750. That part of the great platform on which the peristyle rests consists of immense walls built up about 50 feet from the ground, and formed, as may be easily seen on the northern side, of thirteen courses of bevelled stones in alternate layers of longer and shorter blocks. Outside these walls, at a distance of 29 feet, is another (so-called substruction) wall on the north, west, and probably, though concealed by rubbish, also on the east side. This is built of large stones, and contains three blocks of such extraordinary proportions that the temple acquired from them its ancient name of Trilithon, or "Three-Stone-Temple." These measure respectively 64 feet, 63 feet 8 inches, and 63 feet in length, are 13 feet in height, and have been raised 20 feet from the ground in the western wall. Two underground passages, 17 feet wide and 30 feet high, run from east to west along the sides of the platform of the great quadrangle, and are connected by a transverse tunnel of similar description. They seem, from inscriptions on the walls, to have been tenanted at some time by Roman soldiery.

EB9 Baalbec.png Ground-Plan of Great Temple and Temple of the Sun at Baalbec. (From Wood and Dawkins, Ruins of Balbec.)

Slightly to the north of the Great Temple, and agreeing with it in its orientation, is the Temple of the Sun, which is in much better preservation than its neighbour, and, though small in comparison with it, is larger than the Parthenon at Athens. It likewise is built on a platform, and was reached by a flight of steps at the eastern end, which, it would seem, were still standing in 1688. The arrangement of its peristyle may be seen from the plan. The height of the columns is 45 feet, including the Corinthian capitals, and the circumference of each 19 feet. They supported an entablature of 7 feet in height, from which a ceiling was carried back to the wall of the cella, consisting of slabs enriched with sculpture of great beauty. The principal ornament of each slab is a hexagonal moulding enclosing the figure of some god or hero; but the profusion and elegance of the fretwork can only be rendered by the artist. After passing the vestibule, which was partly freed from its barbarous screen by Mr Burton in