Situated in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon, the Temple of Bacchus is a part of the Baalbek archeological site. The temple complex was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1984 and is regarded as an exceptional archaeological and artistic example of Imperial Roman architecture. One of the most magnificent and well-preserved Roman temple remains is this monument to Bacchus. Although its exact age is unclear, its exquisite decoration may be traced back to the second century CE. The Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled from AD 138 to AD 161, most likely ordered the temple. The site was unknown until the Greeks conquered it in the fourth century, by which time the temple had probably closed because of the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. Not until 1898–1903 did a German mission start excavating two of the larger temples and rebuilding the area. The Lebanese government ordered the preservation of the site and renovations in 1920 following the proclamation of the State of Greater Lebanon. Protection of the site was discontinued after the Lebanese civil war broke out in the mid-1970s and Al-Biqā turned into a stronghold for Syrian and Palestinian forces. The Baalbek ruins were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1984. After the war ended in the 1990s, the place started to be preserved. Measuring 66 meters in length, 35 meters in width, and 31 meters in height, the temple is marginally smaller than the Temple of Jupiter. The temple is situated on a podium that runs east-west. A colonnade of forty-two unfluted Corinthian columns with Ionic bases, nineteen of which remain intact, adorns the periphery wall. Inside, two levels of niches on either side are flanked by Corinthian pilasters that adorn the cella. Even upto the sixteenth century, the gateway itself remained intact. Numerous archaeological excavations and studies on The Temple of Bacchus and the complete temple complex have been conducted by the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute. Research and evaluation of the site are ongoing. Examples include recording sculptures and reliefs, studying the fauna found in the ruins through the lens of archaeozoology, and examining urban growth and its connection to Baalbek [Information and Image Credit : Temple_of_Bacchus, Wikipedia] [Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Bacchus ] [Image : Temple of Bacchus; Wikipedia-Image-Author : Jan Hilgers] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License; (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property and Sharing, Remixing or Attributing the Work)] [License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en ] [Original Wikipedia-Image-Source-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baalbek_Baccustempel.jpg ] #History#Art#Architecture
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Monuments and Architecture
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