Baalbek. Baalbek, also known as Balbec, Baalbec or Baalbeck, is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about 85 km northeast of Beirut.
It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman times Baalbek was also known as Heliopolis.
In 1998 Baalbek had a population of 82,608, mostly Shia Muslims, followed by Sunni Muslims and Christians. It is home to the Baalbek temple complex which includes two of the largest and grandest Roman temple ruins: the Temple of Bacchus and the Temple of Jupiter.
It was inscribed in 1984 as an UNESCO World Heritage site. A few miles from the swamp from which the Litani and the Asi flow, Baalbek may be the same as the manbaa al-nahrayn, the abode of El in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation.
Baalbek was called Heliopolis during the Roman Empire, a latinisation of the Greek Helioúpolis used during the Hellenistic Period, meaning Sun City in reference to the solar cult there. The name is attested under the Seleucids and Ptolemies. However, Ammianus Marcellinus notes that earlier Assyrian names of Levantine towns continued to be used alongside the official Greek ones imposed by the Diadochi, who were successors of Alexander the Great. In Greek religion, Helios was both the sun in the sky and its personification as a god. The local Semitic god BaÊ¿al Haddu was more often equ
It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman times Baalbek was also known as Heliopolis.
In 1998 Baalbek had a population of 82,608, mostly Shia Muslims, followed by Sunni Muslims and Christians. It is home to the Baalbek temple complex which includes two of the largest and grandest Roman temple ruins: the Temple of Bacchus and the Temple of Jupiter.
It was inscribed in 1984 as an UNESCO World Heritage site. A few miles from the swamp from which the Litani and the Asi flow, Baalbek may be the same as the manbaa al-nahrayn, the abode of El in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation.
Baalbek was called Heliopolis during the Roman Empire, a latinisation of the Greek Helioúpolis used during the Hellenistic Period, meaning Sun City in reference to the solar cult there. The name is attested under the Seleucids and Ptolemies. However, Ammianus Marcellinus notes that earlier Assyrian names of Levantine towns continued to be used alongside the official Greek ones imposed by the Diadochi, who were successors of Alexander the Great. In Greek religion, Helios was both the sun in the sky and its personification as a god. The local Semitic god BaÊ¿al Haddu was more often equ
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