What's left of Baalbek. Impossible Baalbek

There are still many unsolved mysteries left in the history of our planet, for example, the most complex ancient buildings that were erected by no one knows who, when and how.

One of these secrets is kept by ancient city, which is located in Lebanon. Once it was a great city, which was one of the religious and cultural centers ancient world. But now Baalbek is almost completely destroyed and forgotten by everyone.

Grand terraces

The most interesting buildings in Baalbek are the huge terraces. They are made of huge stone blocks weighing from 300 before 1000 tons(for example, the average weight of stone blocks in a pyramid Cheops 2.5 tons), and they are laid without any binding composition and so precisely and neatly that it is very problematic to even insert a needle between them.

The largest terrace in Baalbek is the terrace on which the Romans built a temple to their supreme god- To Jupiter. Temple of Jupiter did not survive to this day, it was destroyed by a powerful earthquake. All that remains of it are 6 columns high 22 meters, but they also make a very strong impression.

The three walls of this terrace are made of nine rows of monolithic blocks, each measuring 11 x 4.6 x 3.3 meters and weighing more than 300 tons. The fourth wall is special; it was made from three of the largest processed stones in the world. The weight of each of them is about 1000 tons, the dimensions are no less impressive - 29 x 4 x 3.6 meters. This wall is better known as Trilithon.

And this is actually the largest processed stone block in the world, or rather, almost processed - part of it was never separated from the rock. The southern stone was found in a quarry a kilometer from the city. The weight of the monolith is more than 1000 tons.

The Temple of Bacchus was much luckier; it was preserved much better than most buildings in Baalbek.

Who and when?

To date, not a single source has been found that would shed at least a little light on the questions of who built Baalbek’s masterpieces and when. Therefore, historians and researchers can only guess. What is certain is that the Baalbek terraces were already built in 5th millennium BC and were even considered one of the wonders of the world of that time.

There is an opinion that all the temples, including the foundations on which they stand, were built by the Romans. This theory is not very popular, but some historians are ardent supporters of it. However, most researchers consider this version absurd, since it is contradicted by many historical facts. Naturally, no one denies the fact that the Romans really were in Baalbek and built their temples there - this is a fact, as is the fact that it was much later than the 5th millennium BC (the first mention of Ancient Rome was in 754 BC .e., and the Roman Empire itself was formed in 27 BC). The second “but” - it can be said with certainty that the Romans did not have the knowledge or technology with which it was possible to move 1000-ton blocks, much less lift them to a height (in general, no known ancient civilization had such knowledge and technology). Well, the third argument against the “Roman hypothesis” is noticeable from the first, even naked glance at the Baalbek temples - the difference in scale and style between the temples themselves and the terraces on which they stand is too great.

Who then built Baalbek? There are, of course, assumptions about this, but almost all of them are quite exotic. Some attribute the miracles of Baalbek to the ancient, super-developed people who have sunk into the centuries leaving virtually no traces behind them. Some argue that aliens from other planets could not have happened here, since the civilizations of that time simply could not have sufficient knowledge and advanced technologies to produce such buildings (by the way, this version is relatively common among Egyptologists). And finally, there is an opinion that the giants who once inhabited our planet built...

How?

This question is no less interesting, because we're talking about, probably, about the most complex structures on our planet, against the background of which such great creations as: Mayan pyramids, Cambodian... How, with the help of what technologies and what equipment were built the megalithic terraces of Baalbek?

The only thing we can say with certainty is that the giant stone blocks were processed using the most ordinary chisels. It’s hard to even imagine how much time it took workers to finish one such block...

How such heavy stones were moved from the quarry, the path to which lies across rough plains to the construction site remains a big mystery. It can be assumed that the builders laid stone blocks on logs (rollers) and thus tried to move them (it is believed that during construction Egyptian pyramids used exactly this method). But there are two “sharp” arguments against this version. First of all, the logs would not have withstood a weight of 300 tons, not to mention a thousand, they would simply turn into pressed wood. Secondly modern research showed that moving such a load in this way would require the efforts of approximately 50,000 people, which is an absolutely fantastic figure for the ancient world; only a few ancient cities in terms of population could only come close to this number. Accordingly, it is unlikely that so many people took part in the construction of Baalbek.

Moving the blocks is not even half the problem; they still had to be raised to a decent height and ideally laid on top of each other, which, given the weight, would be a very difficult task even in our time and with our technology. By the way, now in the world there are only a few models of cranes capable of operating weights of more than 1000 tons.

You probably also have a question: Why was it necessary to make huge blocks, because it would be much easier and faster to work with smaller stones...

Lost Civilization

My opinion is that the builders of the megalithic terraces were representatives of some lost unknown civilization. This civilization disappeared as abruptly as it was mysterious; this can be seen in the overall picture of the great Baalbek buildings - they all give the impression of incompleteness. Perhaps this civilization had a presentiment of its approaching “end” and left the Great Terraces of Baalbek in memory of itself, the secret of which we may not be destined to know.

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Historians claim that the main temple of the complex - the Temple of Jupiter - was built by the Romans in the 1st century AD.

However, although this is already a fairly thoroughly documented historical period, it was not possible to find a single (!) primary source where the Romans themselves mentioned even one word about the construction of the temple.

Or any work related to such construction. All references to Roman construction refer only to modern literature.

Moreover, it is believed that the construction of the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek was completed under the famous Nero. However, the walls of the well-known “golden temple” that Nero built in Rome (the capital of the empire) are only plastered brickwork, which cannot bear any comparison with the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek, a deep province of the Roman Empire...

Mythology dates this structure to the times before the Flood.

The neighboring temples - the temple of Venus and the temple of Bacchus - cannot be compared with the temple of Jupiter. They are fully consistent with the capabilities of the times of the Roman Empire. In the main complex of the Temple of Jupiter there are traces of repeated alterations and reconstructions in the most different eras are simply visible in huge numbers.

Southern Stone of Baalbek

Contrary to the sometimes encountered statement, the so-called. The “Southern Stone” was not at all thrown by the builders along the road and was not lost during transportation - it remained lying in the quarry, and was not even completely separated from the rocky base. The slope of the block is determined by the general slope of the surface that the rock mass had in this place.

All around the quarry there were vertical stone blocks left, also not separated from the rocky base. The passages separating them are designed just for a person and (as well as the nature of the surface) are fully consistent with ancient quarries, where building materials were mined by hand.

However, the surface of the South Stone is noticeably different from the surface of the lintel below, which continues to connect it to the rock mass. So it is possible that the giant block itself was made at the same time, and they tried to finally separate it from the rock only later.

Plan of the main complex of Baalbek

In the first room of the so-called. Hexagonal (hexagonal structure) remains of columns laid as a simple wall foundation. On one of the columns there are tool marks, giving the impression that the column was made on some kind of huge lathe...

Then what left this trace?

In some places you can find traces of simple sawing (possibly by hand):

Granite columns around the so-called. The Central Courtyard looks something alien, incompatible with the surrounding limestone and marble buildings. The columns are processed very well, without visible errors.

The Temple of Bacchus, although it looks “solid” from a distance, does not have anything particularly outstanding in its design.

The six surviving columns of the Temple of Jupiter are striking in their size. They are, however, made not from granite (as is sometimes indicated in some sources), but from marble. There are traces of severe erosion and modern restoration patches on the columns...

The row of megaliths on the south side of the temple gives the impression of something unfinished. Its functional purpose is unclear, although it forms the wall of a long platform stretching along the entire temple.

The purpose of the numerous square holes both in the walls of the temple and in the megaliths of the lower tier is also unclear. The guide's explanation that they were broken through by merchants to install awnings over their shops raises strong doubts. Perhaps they could have been used for cladding, for example, with wood, but this version is also doubtful.

For some reason they tried to cut down one of the blocks of the lower tier without finishing the job. The rounded edges of the processed part are not the mark of a round cutter, but the edge of the selected material (according to the movement of the tool during manual processing).

In the northern part of the Temple of Jupiter, the remains of columns are visible, between which blocks are squeezed, making up the careless masonry of a solid wall. It is believed that it was the Arabs who rebuilt the temple into a fortress, but both the version of the alteration by the Arabs (and not the same Romans) and the version of the fortress in general raises doubts, since the complex is not protected by anything either from the east or from the south.

Against the background of the wall on the western side of the temple are the remains of columns that no one was able to remove...

The information that the steps in Baalbek allegedly huge size and seem to be designed for giants. In fact, the steps correspond exactly to normal human height.

But the design of the stairs itself is surprising. The staircase is made up of monolithic blocks, sometimes with 7-8 steps at once. A strange and very time-consuming solution, because the stairs could have been made much simpler.

Meanwhile, there are quite ordinary stairs here:

But next to them there are again huge blocks...

Large blocks along the edge in some places have a chamfer that is not fully completed. Moreover, for this purpose they did not grind the surface, but simply removed a millimeter or two of stones...

The main courtyard of the complex is raised to a considerable height relative to the surrounding ground level. In the thickness of the stonework along the perimeter (it is not clear: in the letter “P” or along the entire perimeter) there are catacombs of impressive size with small branches. In the eastern part of the catacombs there is now a small museum.

In the middle of the Main Courtyard there is what is called the “altar” - a small structure made of stone blocks (in the photo below - on the left side), slightly rising above the ground level in the Courtyard. However, on its eastern side there is an archaeological excavation where you can see as many as 10 rows of masonry. Why was this structure the height of a three-story building made? modern house, going into the ground, and why it was called an “altar” is not clear.

It can be assumed that at some period the level of the Main Courtyard was significantly lower (possibly at the level of the surrounding land), and only later the Courtyard was filled up for some reason to its present state.

In the eastern wall of the Main Courtyard there are several interior rooms, in one of which you can see composite (!!!) floor blocks. They appear to be connected internally by metal pins (as was sometimes practiced in Ancient Greece).

However, it is amazing that for such a long time the component blocks have not even bent anywhere, although the stone blocks of the ceiling lie on them...

On the northern side, the Temple of Jupiter is adjacent to a strange structure - a “megafence” made of huge blocks. It is somewhat similar to the row of megaliths on the southern side of the temple (see above), but here, unlike the southern side, the gap between the “megafence” and the temple wall is not filled with anything. An empty space of unknown purpose is formed with a single small passage outside.

For some reason, strangely shaped recesses were made at the junctions of the megaliths in the upper part of the “megafence”. Moreover, the chamfer cut along the edges of the megaliths repeats the shape of the recess.

Of course, the most striking thing is the western wall of the platform under the Temple of Jupiter, where the famous trilithon is located - three huge blocks (the row of impressive sizes under the trilithon is like a continuation of the northern “megafence” that turned the corner). Why the builders needed such exorbitant dimensions remains a mystery...

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The southern stone remaining in the quarry was clearly planned to be placed somewhere. There are no comparable structures in the surrounding area. And the only obvious place is on top of the trilithon!.. The length of the Southern Stone is quite suitable here.

The difference in height between the upper edge of the trilithon is also consistent with this version (in the picture below: the fragment of the column lies precisely on the trilithon, and the edge of the upper staircase corresponds to the level of the floor of the Temple of Jupiter).

However, in this case, it turns out that the platform of the Temple of Jupiter was never completed!.. After all, the South Stone remained in the quarry..

Strange stripes parallel to each other on the upper edge of the trilithon. Moreover, the lines do not run parallel to the edges of the blocks, but at a pronounced angle to them. In this case, a pair of neighboring blocks are cut as if specially parallel to these lines. Their origin is not clear. A prosaic explanation cannot be ruled out: the stripes were left by some not very careful archaeologists in the recent past...

An even bigger mystery: the rounded surface of one of the blocks in the western wall. It looks very much like a huge piece of column laid on its side. The block was excavated quite recently - the excavated soil had not even had time to be covered with grass.

However, this block is located in the masonry under (!!!) the trilithon. And if this is really a piece of a column, then it works. that the mega-masonry with the trilithon was built on the ruins of an even more ancient structure!..

However, this is quite consistent with the legends that Baalbek was recovering some "giants" after Flood. That is, the original structure was antediluvian. In this case, one can only guess about its initial form...

To relieve tension after so many mysteries, here is a shot of the complex in the evening twilight:

We continue our report on our trip to Lebanon and move on to its most interesting part - Northern Lebanon. Buses from Beirut to Baalbek leave from the bus station near Cola Intersection and cost 5,000 Lebanese pounds. The road heads east from Beirut through a mountain pass towards Damascus. When descending from the pass into the Bekaa Valley, there is a military checkpoint at which stern soldiers with machine guns check everyone’s documents; as it turned out, there were only Syrians on the bus except me. So for the first time I saw Arabs with blond hair and blue eyes, as it turned out later, there are quite a lot of blue-eyed Syrians. The journey takes approximately 2 hours with a possible transfer in Chtaura.

Baalbek

After the conquest by Alexander the Great, this ancient city became known as Heliopolis and became one of the largest religious centers of the Roman Empire. Since ancient times, the god Baal was worshiped there and the name of the city came from him.
Modern Baalbek is a small provincial town in the center of the Beqaa Valley, which is one of the main tourist destinations in Lebanon (although after the outbreak of the war in Syria, the Beqaa Valley became a restless region and the flow of tourists to Baalbek virtually ceased).

Notes about hotels in Baalbek:
There are not many hotels in Baalbek, you can count them on your fingers (I counted only 4-5), almost all of them are located in the city center. I went to the first one I came across called Jupiter Hotel and after some haggling I got a price of $15 for a simple room. I was the only one of the guests. One of the best hotels in Baalbek is http://www.booking.com/hotel/lb/kanaan-group.ru.html?aid=342990]Kanaan Group (4 stars).

After the annexation of Baalbek to the Roman Empire, a grandiose temple complex was built here, part of which has survived to this day. Venus, Jupiter and Bacchus were worshiped here and huge temples were built in their honor. More than 100 years ago, the ruins of Baalbek, along with the pyramids at Giza and the Taj Mahal, were a must-see for any traveler to the East. Mark Twain and Ivan Bunin left memories of visiting Baalbek.

The complex in Baalbek is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

2) The temple complex once looked like this (source: Wikipedia)

The ruins of the Temple of Venus smoothly turn into residential buildings, and residential buildings into ruins, sometimes it is difficult to understand the difference, which is which.

At the entrance there are sellers of yellow T-shirts with the symbols of the Hezbollah movement - the main local souvenir, and local residents who claim to be the best guide and offer to give you a tour for little money.

Entrance to the temple complex costs £15,000 and I was told to leave the area before 6pm, but ended up staying until almost 7pm to take photos in softer light. As elsewhere in the East, the rules are conditional and may change depending on the situation. There are no signs anywhere that passage is prohibited, nothing is fenced and you can climb anywhere. The modern entrance to the temple complex is located in the same place where it was in ancient times and passes through the huge propylaea. Climbing the large staircase we find ourselves in a hexagonal court (Hexagonal Court).

From the hexagonal courtyard we find ourselves in the Large Court, in the center of which there is an altar on which sacrifices were previously made to the gods.

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Along the perimeter of the Great Court there are stones with the inscription IOMH (Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Heliopolitanus), which is translated from Latin as “The Highest and Greatest Jupiter of Heliopolis”.

There are many inscriptions on the walls from the series “Vasya Was Here,” but they are from the 19th century, some were left by Russian vandal travelers.

9) Big Yard

The center of the complex is the temple of Jupiter (Baal, Zeus Heliopolis), which was the most large temple Ancient Rome ever built. To this day, what remains of the temple is the huge platform on which it was built and 6 of the 54 huge columns (some were taken to Constantinople, and the rest were destroyed by many earthquakes and wars).

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The granite columns are simply huge, each of them 22 meters high and 2 meters in diameter. The granite columns were brought from quarries in Egypt.

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Cut of one of the columns, holes for centering. The columns were supported by their own weight. The surface is polished like a mirror.

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On the roof of the Temple of Jupiter there were bas-reliefs with the heads of lions, in the mouth of which there was a special hole for drainage of water during rain. These holes were positioned so precisely that water streamed into a special groove at the foot of the temple. During an earthquake, these bas-reliefs fell to the ground and now we can see them up close.

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Pay attention to the swastika on the bas-relief, it was once a symbol of the Sun and movement, and in Ancient Rome a symbol of Zeus; another 1900 years would pass from the construction of the temple before the swastika became a symbol of Nazi Germany.

The Temple of Jupiter was built on a platform of huge stone blocks - the Baalbek terraces. In the western part of the platform there is the famous trilithon - 3 horizontally located monolithic stones, each weighing about 800 tons. They are among the largest monoliths created by man in history (for comparison, the largest stones in the Cheops pyramid weigh “only” 50-80 tons). Scientists are still arguing about who built this platform. Many believe that a temple in honor of the god Baal already stood on this site, and the Romans used a ready-made platform to build the temple of Jupiter. It still remains a mystery who built the Baalbek terrace and how. Nowhere in the ancient world was there anything like this (Although one may recall that the largest monolith ever moved by man is the Thunderstorm Stone, which stands at the base of the monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg). Lovers conspiracy theories They believe that this platform was built by extraterrestrial civilizations.

In a quarry 900 meters from the temple, a huge monolith called the “Stone of a Pregnant Woman” or “Southern Stone” still lies in the ground. According to scientists, its weight is more than 1000 tons.

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19) I took a photo against his background, for scale.

Next to the Temple of Jupiter there is a well-preserved Temple of Bacchus (Mercury, Dionysus) - the patron saint of winemaking. It is larger in size than famous temple Parthenon in Athens.

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Nineteen Corinthian columns support the richly decorated roof.

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25) Cleopatra with a snake on her chest. The face has been erased by iconoclasts.

26) Entrance to the Temple of Bacchus

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30) Star of David

31) Remains of a sarcophagus

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A hundred years ago these temples were buried half their height with earth and debris, but over many years of archaeological research they have been cleared, but the Roman city of Heliopolis itself still lies underground on the site of the modern Arab city of Baalbek.

While on the ruins of these temples, the imagination takes over and pictures from the life of Ancient Rome begin to be colorfully imagined, now you see how Emperor Trajan consults with the local oracle here, or passing by the main altar, you see how an animal is sacrificed on it and look in which direction smoke will come from the fire to decide what to expect from the Gods. Once upon a time, life was in full swing here.

The temple complex in Baalbek made a very strong impression on me, especially considering that these are the first Roman ruins that I was able to get to know so closely. Walking through them, I already imagined what pompous phrases I would use to describe this in the report, but when it came time to write the report, I don’t know how to express all these impressions. It is useless to try to describe what I felt, you need to see it with your own eyes and touch it with your own hands.

After two hours of walking on the stones that the emperors of the Roman Empire and simple patricians once walked on, I headed out. Where I met a group of 5 Russian tourists with a guide; besides them, I didn’t see any more tourists in Baalbek.

Around the temple complex there are a lot of souvenir shops that sell everything from postcards to antiques. One of the most popular goods is “ancient Roman” coins. The sellers will claim that they dug them up almost yesterday at dawn, but keep in mind that all these coins are fake, so don’t fall for their talk. But, to be honest, I bought myself a couple of coins as a souvenir at an appropriate price.

In the evening in a cafe I met a couple, a German woman and an Arab guy of 20 years old. It turned out they met through Couchsurfing (I also wanted to find someone on , but then changed my mind, since I didn’t plan to stay in Baalbek for more than one night). Ali, as my new friend was called, introduced us to two Syrian guys who worked in this cafe and they told us the story of how and why they moved from Damascus to Baalbek. Their homes in Damascus were destroyed during the war and they see no point in returning to Syria at this time. I asked them about the situation in Syria, and that’s when I first had a crazy thought, “shouldn’t I go to Damascus,” but at that moment it was rather just a crazy idea, far from reality.
Ali told us a lot of interesting things about Baalbek and invited us to visit him in the evening and meet his family. Meeting someone local is The best way get to know the country from the inside.
We spent the whole evening visiting Ali’s relatives in Baalbek (and he had relatives in half the city), talking and drinking tea.
Ali turned out to be a big fan of Hezbollah (the Bekaa Valley is the birthplace of this movement and it has enormous influence there). He constantly talked about how much good Hezbollah does for the Lebanese, how strong its soldiers are and how much support it has among the people. She said that she was in the Syrian city of Al-Qusayr, immediately after its assault by government forces. Hezbollah soldiers took an active part in the assault, with whom Ali ended up in Al-Quseir. Among the killed opposition soldiers, he found documents identifying them as Chechens. According to him, a lot of Chechens are fighting on the side of the opposition. They also found a schedule according to which opposition soldiers share prostitutes from Saudi Arabia and Libya, who are sent there to fulfill the “sacred duty of Jihad.” In addition, he said that the Syrian army consists of some kind of rabble who don’t even know how to handle weapons, and a couple of hundred Hezbollah soldiers played a key role in the capture of Al-Qusayr. I wanted to meet the Hezbollah soldiers who took part in the assault, but this turned out to be impossible. Without questioning the factual side of the story, I don’t think that he himself took any part in this; rather, he simply heard from those directly involved in the events.
Ali spoke English well, but as it turned out, he knew French even better (this is the first foreign language in Lebanon), and in the house there was a Bible in French on a shelf next to the Koran. In addition to Hezbollah, Ali turned out to be a fan of Lenin and Che Guevara; portraits of the latter were hung throughout the house. In general, Ali turned out to be a very interesting conversationalist, he told and showed a lot, and introduced him to many people in Baalbek. I noticed that when people ask where you are from and you say that you are from Russia, the attitude towards you changes better side. They love Russians here.
The evening was full of conversations and Ali invited him to stay the next day and spend the night at his house. I didn’t have any specific plans, so I decided that I would stay for one more day in Baalbek, especially since the German woman gradually merged, apparently could not withstand the pressure of propaganda :)

The next morning I visited the local mosque.

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These local residents have such kind and spiritual views, they are truly imbued with hospitality.
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Bekaa Valley

For lunch we went to Zahle - the largest city in the Bekaa Valley. You can get there by any minibus for 3,000 pounds. Ali quickly passed his university exam and we headed to the most famous and oldest winery of Ksara (Château Ksara).
The Bekaa Valley has always been fertile and supplied food to the Roman Empire in ancient times, and the tradition of making wine in Lebanon goes back 6,000 years.

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Wine in Ksar is stored in caves that naturally maintain the required humidity and temperature of 13-15 degrees.

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There are free excursions in Ksar (which are conducted pretty girls) and, again, free wine tasting. It was impossible to refuse such an offer.

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I’m not a big expert in wine, but I liked what they gave us to try, so (how could it be otherwise?) We went to the winery store and took a couple of bottles of wine and the traditional local drink Arak. This is a very strong (56 degrees) anise alcohol (“Would you like vodka? Anise?”), so it is diluted with water in the proportion of 1/3 arrack and 2/3 water. The taste is from childhood and is similar to some kind of medicine.
In the store we met a couple from Russia, the guy was very surprised that I was spending the night in Baalbek, and said that it was dangerous (?!).

Leaving the winery, that crazy thought about visiting Syria came into my head again. From Zahle to the border with Syria, it’s only 25 km and I didn’t want to miss this opportunity, so I started persuading Ali to go with me, although I myself was unsure whether it was worth going there. Doubts plagued my mind, but when Ali agreed to go with me, the decision was made. We got to Shtura and found a taxi driver there (a Syrian in a car with Syrian license plates) who agreed to take us across the border for 50,000 pounds. We went.
I wrote a separate report about the Syrian adventure in detail - (an entertaining read, I recommend it). As can be seen from the title of the report, we did not reach Damascus by only 30 km, since it was already getting dark, and Ali flatly refused to spend the night in Damascus, so we had to return.
We returned to Ali's house only at 11 pm. His parents were not happy (to put it mildly) to find out that we went to Syria.

The next day I planned to move to the Qadisha Valley, which is on the other side of the mountain pass.

41) View of the Mount Lebanon mountain range.

There are two ways to get from the Bekaa Valley to the Qadisha Valley, the first is to return to Beirut, and from there drive through Byblos to Bshare, this is the easiest way, but you need to make a big detour and spend half a day on a bus (200 km), the second way is to drive through a mountain pass (55km). I decided to go outside the standard tourist route and try to cross the pass.
There is no regular traffic on the road through the pass; in winter it is completely blocked, as it becomes too dangerous (there are cases of deaths of tourists who wanted to cross the pass in winter), and in summer it can only be traveled by a rare hitchhiker or by taxi. I refused the second option, since it turned out to be prohibitively expensive for such a short distance ($70-100 for a taxi), leaving only the first option - hitching a ride. Finding a car straight from Baalbek to Bshara is practically impossible, so I asked Ali to help me drive towards the pass, and then figure it out as I went along. We reached the exit from the city and stood by the road. I tried to vote, but cars stopped very rarely, but after 20 minutes we were lucky, some of Ali’s friends stopped in an ancient Mercedes. They quickly agreed on something, they pushed me into the car and we drove off, I still didn’t understand where they could take me.
They drove me about 10 km and at a military checkpoint they told me to get out, a soldier took me aside and told me to wait. After 5 minutes, he stopped another car and told me to get in, the driver, it seemed to me, was not particularly happy with my company, but he did not argue with the armed military man and took me to the city of Deir El Ahmar, which is about 6 km further. Well, I’ve covered 16 km out of 55 km, the simplest thing left is to cross the pass itself :)
Deir el-Ahmar is the largest Christian city in the Bekaa Valley, which dates back to the times of the Roman Empire. Populated predominantly by Maronite Christians.
I got up at the exit of the city and started voting. I had never hitchhiked before and it gave me mixed feelings. On the one hand, I felt out of place, but on the other hand, I was very interested in what would come of it.
I had been standing by the road for an hour already, but the rare passing cars did not stop, some showed that they were going in the other direction, and others simply did not have room in the car. A woman sitting in a rocking chair in the house opposite looked at my unsuccessful attempts to leave and invited me several times to come visit, but each time I politely refused. Soon a loaded truck stopped about 100 meters from me. truck and the driver began to wash her with a hose, she became my main hope. At first I thought of approaching the driver, but decided to wait for him where I was standing. After almost 20 minutes of waiting, the driver drove off and I raised my right hand with a thumbs up. He stopped next to me and showed with all his appearance that he had been waiting for this moment and was gladly ready to give me a ride.
The driver turned out to be a young and cheerful local guy (I, unfortunately, forgot his name) who looked like a Frenchman. He was also traveling to Bshara and was ready to take me across the pass. He didn’t know English very well, and I didn’t speak French, so we spoke more in sign language :) The driver turned out to be a Maronite Christian and no longer spoke so joyfully about Hezbollah (which was unusual for my ears, after two days of propaganda), although there wasn’t much negativity either. He just said that Christians want to live in peace with everyone, and Hezbollah wants war with Israel.

42) Climbing to the pass

43) In the background you can see the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, along which the border between Lebanon and Syria runs.

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We stopped several times to take photos. From the pass there is a magnificent view of the Bekaa Valley.

45) Panorama of the Bekaa Valley

The tradition of growing marijuana has been going on in the Bekaa Valley since the Roman Empire (as you noticed, everything in Lebanon dates back to the Roman Empire). During the Civil War, this was the main source of income for the valley's residents. Now drug production has noticeably decreased, but hashish fields still remain.

46) Green areas are marijuana fields.

When we left, the weather in Baalbek was beautiful, warm (29-29 degrees), and snow could be seen on the pass. In many places it lies here almost all year round.

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Now it’s clear why the pass is practically impossible to pass in winter.

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49) The driver decided to quench his thirst with “fresh mountain” water.

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And now we have reached the top point of the pass, just a few kilometers from here is the highest (3088 meters) mountain in Lebanon - Qurnat as Sawdā’, and on the other side of the pass lies the Qadisha valley.

51) Valley of Kadisha

Read about the Kadisha Valley, the famous Lebanese cedars and Byblos in the next report.

Other reports from the series traveling around Lebanon.

I developed an interest in ancient technologies, which, judging by the surviving artifacts, were far ahead of modern humanity.

Mysteries of ancient civilizations... Hundreds of television programs and documentaries have been created on this exciting topic. This is not surprising, because curious human nature always strives for knowledge, especially when it comes to something mysterious and enigmatic. But there are still more questions than answers. An example of this is the famous Baalbek Terrace.

Looking at structures erected long before the beginnings of such a phenomenon as technological progress, man, or rather his inquisitive mind, rightly demands answers to simple questions: “Who?”, “Why?” And How?".

The terrace in Baalbek is a mega-building of the ancients, the very possibility of its construction is not explained in any way modern science. Ufologists tend to attribute everything to alien intervention. But somehow both of them stubbornly avoid talking about the possibilities of previous civilizations that inhabited the Earth before us. After all, then many “inconvenient” questions will arise, to answer which it will be necessary to carry out a radical revision of the foundations of all modern science.

A little about Baalbek itself

How in the Bekaa Valley, at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, 90 kilometers from modern Beirut, these majestic structures once appeared, of which today only silent ruins remain, no one knows for sure.

It is known that the once prosperous city of Baalbek was converted into a Roman colony during the time of the ancient Roman emperor Augustus. The ruined Temple of Jupiter, impressive in scale and power, eloquently testifies to the Roman period of Baalbek. The temple was badly damaged by time and wars, and was finally destroyed by the earthquake of 1759. Descendants were left to contemplate only the remains of the temple itself and two vast courtyards surrounded by a columnar gallery with a beautiful portico at the entrance.

The scale of the ancient religious building is such that the famous Parthenon in Athens truly seems like a pygmy! But even more impressive is the foundation on which the Temple of Jupiter was built. Scientists are forced to admit that the colossal blocks of stone on which it was erected (the so-called Baalbek terraces) existed long before the Romans. They only used them as a foundation for a temple to their god.

Who and when?

Today, no one can say with certainty when these majestic terraces were built. Some scientists are inclined to attribute the glory of their construction to the builders of the temple itself - the Romans. Ignoring the fact that the Baalbek mega-slabs were first mentioned in 804 BC, while the Roman Empire arose in the 30s BC. According to some open sources, in the 5th millennium BC. e. The Baalbek terraces were already standing!

What knowledge and skills did the engineers and builders of this colossal structure have? After all, the masters were faced with the task of lifting blocks weighing 750 tons to a height of 7-8 meters! Before this, they were carefully processed and took the form of an ideal building block. All the blocks of the Baalbek terraces fit exactly, evenly and tightly to each other, without even forming a gap! That is, such precision and exceptional precision in the manufacture and installation of gigantic “bricks” have been demonstrated that it would be impossible to repeat this even with the help of high-precision modern equipment! Especially considering the size and weight of the megaliths.

Some researchers argue that the effect of a perfectly tight fit was ensured by the soft and pliable half-marble-half-limestone structure of the stone. But if this is really the case, then during processing there should have been traces of grinding and other mechanical damage, but there are none anywhere. Traveler and writer Karigor Olegin, amazed by the majesty and power of this ancient structure, notes that the precision of processing the surfaces of the blocks of the Baalbek platform is a shame for the stonemasons of our time .

It is known that Napoleon's comrade-in-arms, Marshal Marmont, who visited Baalbek in 1840, wrote that huge hewn blocks lie without any connection and are so well fitted that not even a knife blade can fit between them. Indeed, the fit of the blocks is perfect. Even the cutting edge of the Sputnik safety razor, 0.01 millimeters thick (!), does not fit into the gap. To be more precise, there is no gap at all. The blocks seem to be fused with each other: not even a drop of water seeps down at the junction!

The whole titanic quality of the Baalbek terrace lies in the massiveness of the stones from which it was composed. In its northwestern corner are incredibly large slabs known as trilithon (three stone) blocks. No wonder the legend says that these stones lay here forever. Each of them reaches a length of 21 meters, a height of 5 and a width of 4 meters. The volume of each is from 300 to 310 cubic meters, and the weight is up to 750 tons!

Each such block had to be delivered from the quarry to the construction site, moved at a distance of about 500 meters. If the builders had used wooden sleds for this (as some historians suggest!), they would have turned into pressed wood in a second. Moreover, it is not possible to use the sled on such uneven terrain as in the vicinity of Baalbek.

It was impossible at that time to gather 50,000 people to transport one medium-weight block, since this is a fantastic figure for the ancient world. Today, there are only a few ancient cities known that could approach this figure in terms of population.

In addition, flawlessly crafted stone slabs took place at an eight-meter height. How did they get there? What equipment could people use to build a terrace in those ancient times?

Today, there are indeed several of the most powerful cranes in the world, which are capable of lifting not only 750, but also up to 6,000 tons. But it is impossible to move with this load without putting such a crane on crawler tracks. But for him, again, it is simply necessary smooth road. No traces of such a road were found anywhere in the Baalbek area, nor, in fact, were there any signs of the crane operating.

The largest processed stone in the world rests at the exit from Baalbek. He was never pulled out of the quarry. This monolith is known as the "Stone of the South", 21 meters long, 433 cubic meters in volume and weighing more than 1000 tons. That's like three Boeing airplanes combined! The purpose of the most massive block remains unknown.

This structure is significantly superior to the Cheops Pyramid, the largest granite blocks of which weigh “only” from 50 to 80 tons.

According to a number of scientists, “ stone monuments" of our planet, including Baalbek, are the works of the ancient Atlantean civilization and were built so that they could not be “taken apart” and “lost.”

Mixed with the feeling of the “eternal” existence of the Baalbek terrace is the persistent impression that even if people are washed away by a flood, this megalithic structure will remain. Perhaps it is intended to eternally remind a person that his life is fleeting in comparison with the life of these stone blocks. After all, standing next to the trilithons, you involuntarily feel like a grain of sand in this sea of eternity.

The 19th century Russian traveler D.K. Geikie, in his book “The Holy Land and the Bible,” published in 1884, wrote: “We are so accustomed to consider ourselves and everything modern generations smarter and more educated than the ancients, which does not prevent such miracles as the temple of Baalbek from knocking down our arrogance a little..."

There is no doubt that in the times preceding the Roman colonization of the Middle East, no state could provide such labor-intensive construction. So who built Baalbek?

Anastasia Novykh’s book “Sensei-IV” says that the “Baalbek veranda” was once nothing more than a cosmodrome. “This is such a huge platform, built from giant blocks, weighing 360 tons each, with special holes on the sides of the platform. Archaeologists are still scratching their heads about its purpose. True, in contrast to the ideas about the world of people of previous eras, at least they began to guess that it looked like a cosmodrome,” Sensei grinned. - Their naivety is amazing! They are looking for traces of soot from spaceship fuel, naturally meaning by fuel the fuel and its components that are known today. - And Sensei said in surprise. - In general, what kind of tanks with such fuel do you need to fly, for example, from Sirius, and even return back?! They are funny, looking for traces of fuels and lubricants, without even assuming that the world is full of other sources of alternative energy that are more economical and environmentally friendly. Well, as they say, whoever has what information hopes for it.

In addition to the Baalbek Veranda, there were cosmodromes that did not require such a large area for takeoff and landing operations. For these ships, an area was allocated directly at the base of the Nile “flower”. Naturally, such an intense movement could not go unnoticed by people, so very interesting ancient legends about that time have been preserved in the memory of generations.” .

The builders of this architectural complex used technologies far superior to modern ones, including, apparently, anti-gravity, which allowed them to move huge objects and build colossal buildings. Today, thanks to, we have a unique opportunity to learn more about such physical phenomena that disappeared civilizations used, to study the essence and principles of their action.

And the amazing heritage of the ancients, including the Baalbek miracle terrace, prompted us to search for answers. It stood, stands and will stand as an amazing mystery, as a mockery of distant ancestors at modern science. Having reached us over many millennia, it reminds us that nothing is impossible for man!

Nadezhda Eremenko

Literature:

Vershigora V. Ancient artifacts from phantom Poe particles, ALLATRA SCIENCE website

Geikie D.K. The Holy Land and the Bible, Jerusalem, 1894, 324 pp.