It all started with this photo. It was claimed that this incredible stone weighs about 1000 tons. But after finding out what this place was, I was surprised to find out that I had not heard anything about it, although it is quite famous. And how many interesting information and amazing photos I saw. I will show some of them and tell you something. Who is interested - there are a lot of details on the Internet.
History has left humanity with many mysteries that we still have to solve. One of these mysteries today are ancient buildings made of huge boulders weighing hundreds of tons. Versions regarding the builders of such structures are different. Some suggest that the ancient people possessed incredible technology, others that aliens from other planets participated in the construction. Among the versions, there is also an assumption about the existence of giant people in the past.
One of the cities with such mysterious ancient buildings is the city of Baalbek in Lebanon. It was once one of the most sacred places on Earth, and its temples were listed among the wonders of the ancient world. But nowadays Baalbek is forgotten by everyone - it was destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth during twenty years of war and terrorism. Baalbek was completely forgotten, and in some books on archeology he is not mentioned at all.
Of all the archaeological treasures of Baalbek, enormous terraces stand out. It is impossible to make them without the use of technology, lifting and other construction mechanisms, which hardly existed then. Until now, no information has been found that would suggest who and when built terraces from hewn monoliths in Baalbek. This is at least strange - after all, we are not talking about some small details, but about stone masses, in comparison with which even such grandiose buildings as the Egyptian pyramids pale in comparison!
The ancient Baalbek complex in Lebanon is built of the world's largest stone blocks and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records in many respects.
Archaeologists attribute it to the structures of the Roman era. However, the facts indicate that the very first builders of the complex were not at all the Romans, but some very highly technologically advanced civilization, the possibilities of which amaze even modern builders.
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Baalbek is called the "Acropolis of the Levant". It is located on a high hill, the height of which is increased by a mighty ancient terrace, built of stones in the days of the Phoenicians. Initially, there was a temple of Baal (Baal) - an ancient deity worshiped in Phenicia. Baal was considered the god of the sun and fertility. In the Hellenistic era, his image merged with the image of the Greek god of the Sun Helios, and Baalbek was named Heliopolis - the city of the Sun. During the time of the Roman Emperor Augustus, Baalbek became a colony of Rome, and the Temple of the Sun was turned into the Temple of Jupiter, next to which the temples of Bacchus (Bacchus) and Venus were built. During the Byzantine Empire, pagan temples were converted to Christian ones, then the era of Arab rule came, then the crusaders came, followed by the Turks … Ancient temples were plundered, rebuilt,sorted out building materials. In addition, Baalbek's buildings were destroyed by earthquakes four times.
The splendor of these ruins is incomparable. In the architecture of Baalbek temples, the striving inherent in many pagan religions is clearly expressed: to demonstrate the power of the gods over man, to create an image of superhuman power embodied in stone. Art, artistic taste, craftsmanship are sacrificed here for the ponderousness of forms, colossalness, cyclopeanity, looking at which one involuntarily thinks about the senselessly wasted labor of tens of thousands of people …
Baalbek was first mentioned in documents dating back to the XIV century BC. e., by the time of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, who established the cult of the solar deity Aten on the territory of Egypt and the lands subject to him. Probably at this time, the ancient Phoenician temple of Baal, destroyed by an earthquake, was rebuilt as the Temple of the Sun. According to the Roman writer Macrobius, a statue of the god Aton was brought to the restored temple from Egypt. The ancient sanctuary gradually developed into the largest religious center in the Middle East. Here, during one of his campaigns, Alexander the Great visited.
During the Seleucid era, who conquered Lebanon in the 3rd century BC, the Baalbek complex fell into decay. New grandiose construction began here during Roman rule, when Baalbek-Heliopolis became a stronghold of Rome in the Middle East and an important trade center. The center of the Roman Baalbek was the monumental Temple of Jupiter ("Great Temple"), which reached 90 meters in length and 50 meters in width. It was surrounded by a mighty colonnade of 52 columns, of which only six have survived.
In the 5th century BC. the gigantic terraces of Heliopolis were ranked as wonders of the world - and rightly so. Multi-ton monolithic stone blocks are stacked on top of each other with the greatest precision. They are tightly fitted and adhere without adhesive.
It was here that the Romans built the most grandiose of their temples, dedicated to the main deity - Jupiter. This temple was destroyed by earthquakes - only six columns remained from it. But these columns, reaching a height of almost 22 meters, still make a very impressive impression. Compared to this temple, the Parthenon in Athens may seem like a dwarf. By the way, the nearby Temple of Bacchus is also impressive in its size.
The terraces were built long before the arrival of the Romans in Baalbek. These giant platforms are built of huge boulders. For example, the terrace on which the Temple of Jupiter was erected in the southeastern wall consists of nine rows of stone blocks, each measuring approximately 11x4.6x3.3 m and weighing more than 300 tons. And in its wall from the northwest side are built three of the world's largest machined monoliths. They are called Trilithon or the Miracle of the Three Stones. These stones are 29 m long, 4 m high and 3.6 m thick. The weight of each of the three giants ranges from 800 to 1000 tons. Moreover, the stones of Trilithon are so neatly folded and so precisely connected to each other that it is almost impossible to put even a needle between them.
The oldest history of Baalbek is unknown. Under Emperor Augustus, the city was converted into a Roman colony (Colonia Julia Augusta, Felix) and had a Roman garrison. The most significant and most magnificent are the ruins of the larger temple of Jupiter, built during the Roman period by Antoninus Pius. The temple was destroyed by time and wars. The earthquake of 1759 was completed, and now we can see only the remains of the temple itself and two large courtyards surrounded by a columnar gallery, with a magnificent portico at the entrance. But earlier it was here that the Roman emperors came to make sacrifices to their gods and ask the oracle about the fate of the empire.
The building of the main temple in the depths of the large courtyard was a rectangle 89 m long and 49 m wide, the roof of which rested on 54 Corinthian columns, forming a peristyle. Of these columns, only 6 have survived at present, with approximately 7 meters in girth and a rod 19.8 meters long, and together with a pedestal - 24 meters; the rest is miserable rubble, covering the entire area occupied by ruins, with an area of about 5 square meters. km.
Compared to the Temple of Jupiter, the Parthenon in Athens may seem like a dwarf. But no matter how majestic the temple of Jupiter is, the foundation on which it rests is of pre-Roman construction, made of colossal boulders, is even more grandiose. It is made up of stone blocks. There are nine rows in the southeastern wall of the temple base. Each block measuring approximately 11x4.6x3.3 m weighs, respectively, more than 300 tons. At the same level, in the adjoining southwestern wall, there are six more 300-ton stones, on top of which are three colossal megalithic blocks called Trilithon, or the Miracle of three stones. Three Trilithon granite blocks form the sixth visible row of the wall masonry. Each of these incredibly huge stones measures an average of 21 meters in length, 5 meters in height and 4 meters in width. They weigh 800 tons each! Michel Aluf, Baalbek's former keeper, wrote:
“… Despite their grandiose size, they (the Trilithon stones) are so neatly folded and so precisely connected to each other that it is almost impossible to put even a needle between them. No description can give any accurate idea of the amazing impression that makes the observer's view of these giant blocks."
The enormous scale of Trilithon can be judged by the size of a slightly larger block known as the South Stone - it lies nearby in a quarry, ten minutes walk to the southwest. The dimensions of this stone block are 23 m long, 5.3 m wide and 4.55 m high. It weighs approximately 1,000 tons.
How did the 800-ton stones of Trilithon move from the quarry to the construction site? The distance is not that great - no more than half a kilometer, and the difference in height between the two points is not too great. However, given the size and weight of these stones and the fact that the road from the quarry to the temple is still not entirely flat, transportation by ordinary vehicles seems impossible. And further, an even greater mystery seems to be how the Trilithon stones were then raised more than 20 feet (almost 7 m) and installed on the wall with such precision, without any mortar.
Some experts are trying to convince us that it was the Romans who built such a vast foundation of stone in Baalbek as the foundation for their temples. But in fact, none of the Roman emperors ever claimed that he performed such a fantastic deed, and besides, as one specialist noted, the difference between the scale of Roman temples and the foundation on which they stand is too great. Among other things, we have no evidence that the Romans possessed the technology with which they could transport boulders weighing 800 tons. Moreover, there are no facts that would prove that any civilization known to us had a technique with which it would be possible to lift such colossal stones as we see at the base of Baalbek!
Who could have built such a gigantic stone foundation, and why? This mystery has excited the imagination of man for thousands of years.
The Arabs believed that Baalbek belonged to the mythical Nimrod, who once reigned in this part of Lebanon. One Arabic manuscript found in Baalbek states that Nimrod sent giants to rebuild Baalbek after the Flood (which echoes the story of the 12th planet) Another text says that Nimrod rebelled against his god and built Babylonian tower.
Sometimes the construction of Baalbek is associated with the biblical character Cain, the son of Adam. He allegedly built Baalbek as a refuge when the god Yahweh cursed him. The Patriarch of the Lebanese Maronite community Estfan Doveigi wrote: “According to legends, the Baalbek Fortress is the oldest building in the world. It was built by Adam's son Cain in 133 AD from the creation of the world, in a fit of insane rage. He named it after his son Enoch and populated it with giants who were punished by the Flood for their iniquity."
Local Muslims also believed that it was beyond people's ability to move the huge stones of Baalbek. But they believed that this work was not done by giants, but by demons or genies. The English traveler David Urquhart proposed a similar version that the builders of Baalbek used mastodons as mobile cranes for transporting stones - now extinct huge animals that look like elephants!
Some argue that rocks as heavy as Baalbek's 800-ton monolithic boulders cannot be lifted even with modern cranes. This is not entirely true. Bob McGrane, CTO of Baldwin's Industrial Services, one of the UK's leading crane rental companies, has confirmed that there are some types of mobile cranes that can lift a 1,000-ton rock and place it on a 20-foot masonry. (7 m). Baldwins has Gottwald AK 912 slewing cranes with a lifting capacity of 1,200 tonnes, while other companies have cranes capable of lifting 2,000 tonnes. Unfortunately, these cranes cannot move with such a heavy load. How could we transport the South Stone to the construction site? Baldwin's engineers offered two options:the first is to use a thousand-ton crane set on tracks. The disadvantage of this method is that it requires preliminary labor-intensive earthwork in order to build a solid, level road for the movement of the crane.
Another option is to use several modular hydraulic trailers instead of a crane, which can be connected to a platform for transporting heavy loads. These trailers raise and lower loads using hydraulic cylinders built into their suspension. To lift a rock in a quarry, you need to drive a trailer through a hole cut in the bottom of the stone block. The stone can be permanently installed on a wall, 20 feet high, using an earthen embankment.
But with regard to the methods offered by the Baldwins company, there is, of course, one small snag - when Baalbek was being built, of course, no one could even think about these technical methods of the 20th century!
Well, what happens if we still return to the hypothesis of methods without the use of modern technology? It is commonly assumed that the megalithic boulders were moved by wooden rollers. But modern experiments have shown that such rollers are destroyed even under a weight much less than 800 tons. And even if it were possible to use this method, then, according to the calculations, to move the Southern Stone, it would take a joint reinforcement of 40 thousand people. It remains completely unproven that the 800-ton boulders could be moved in such a primitive way.
Baalbeck, May 7, 1839. Engraving by David Roberts.
Another weak point of the traditional interpretation is the question - why did the builders have to fiddle with such weights, if it was much easier to break the giant monolith into several smaller blocks. In the opinion of my friends - civil engineers, the use of such huge stone blocks in Trilithon is a very dangerous business, as any vertical crack in the stone could seriously weaken the entire structure. Conversely, the same defect in smaller blocks would not affect the strength of the entire structure in any way.
Therefore, it makes no sense at all to try to imagine how tens of thousands of people are struggling to move and lift 800-ton boulders. How, then, can we get out of the impasse, and what could be assumed regarding the intentions of the builders of Baalbek?
On the one hand, they seem to have been completely confident that there were no defects in their building material. Therefore, they preferred to use large blocks for purely design reasons, believing that in this way a more solid foundation would be provided that could withstand colossal vertical loads. This is a very interesting idea. On the other hand, it is possible that the builders were just in a hurry and it was more profitable for them to cut and deliver one large stone to the site than two small ones. In this case, it should, of course, be assumed that they possessed high-level construction equipment.
But if Trilithon is a later layer and was built with the use of high technology in unknown times, then the lower layers should take us even further into the depths of prehistory. These lower rows of masonry in the southwest wall are meticulously built of smaller stones, overlaid by a row of 300-ton slabs with a chipped outer edge. The neighboring southeastern wall at the same level is composed of a number of megalithic blocks of the same size, but not homogeneous - some of them have hewn edges, others do not, and the width of the hewn surface is different even for neighboring blocks. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the top row of the original platform was once seriously damaged and then reconstructed.
By the way, in the Karak-Nu mosque, 20 miles south of Baalbek, there is an unusual grave - they say this is the grave of Noah. Local legend says that Noah was very tall and could stand over the Bekaa Valley with one foot on the top of the Lebanese mountains in the west, the other on the Anti-Lebanese mountains in the east! According to legend, one of Noah's feet is buried in this "grave". But according to the official version, “just a fragment of an ancient aqueduct” is buried in it. Based on the legend, and considering the favor of the gods towards Noah, it is quite possible to assume that this "tomb" of an extraordinary appearance (sixty feet long and several feet wide) hides the wing of an ancient aeronautical apparatus.
Sitchin found striking geographical evidence that Baalbek became the main landing site for the gods after the Flood. In hindsight, this seems obvious enough, but before Sitchin no one had ever noticed that the huge stone platform of Baalbek was equidistant between the pyramids of Giza and Mount Saint Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula.
What is the significance of Mount St. Catherine? In addition to being one of the most sacred religious sites in the world, it is - and more importantly - the highest mountain in Sinai - 8,700 feet (2,900 m) above sea level.
The religious significance of Mount St. Catherine dates back to 330 AD. This year, by order of Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, a small chapel was built here over the roots of the bush. According to the traditional legend, it was the Burning Bush, in which the Lord revealed himself to Moses 3400 years ago. This bush was so holy that all attempts to transplant its branches to another place failed. The mountain got its name from the great martyr Catherine, who converted to Christianity, was tortured and beheaded at the beginning of the fourth century. According to legend, her body disappeared, and only a few centuries later it was allegedly found by monks on the mountain that now bears her name.
In the vicinity of Mount Saint Catherine, to the south of it, stands Mount Sinai, 7,500 feet (2,500 m) high. Mount Sinai and Mount St. Catherine together form an imposing double-headed summit that corresponds to the two main pyramids of Giza. Can you imagine that such a geometric correspondence (Giza-Sinai-Baalbek) arose by chance? The pyramids of Giza were originally lined with polished white limestone slabs, which allowed them to be seen with the naked eye at a great distance.
Maurice Chatelain, a former NASA scientist who was the lead developer on the Apollo Luna projects, noted that “… in space it (the Great Pyramid) is seen much better on the radar screen due to the tilt of its walls, which reflect the radar beams perpendicularly if fall on them at an angle of 38 degrees to the horizon."
Maurice Chatelain calculated that the pyramid was originally "a radar reflector with a setting factor of 600 million for a wavelength of 2 cm." If translated into the language of the profane, it means that it was an extremely powerful reflector!
The entrance to the territory of the complex leads through the propylaea, made in the form of two square towers. A wide front staircase ran between them, partially restored by German specialists at the beginning of the 20th century. It leads out into the courtyard in the form of a six-pointed star ("Great Courtyard", or Pantheon) - a symbol widespread in the East. It is surrounded by a high wall, decorated with numerous arched niches. Once, a colonnade of 84 columns stretched along the entire perimeter of the courtyard, of which only a few survived. Remnants of the rest, mixed with fragments of stone blocks, dot the entire space of the courtyard, in the center of which rise the ruins of a huge altar with two towers on the sides. Once sacrifices were made here to Baal. Here you can also see the remains of two rectangular basins, in which sacrificial animals were washed before being slaughtered.
From the Great Courtyard, a majestic staircase leads to the foot of the Temple of Jupiter. At its top, there is an observation deck, which offers an impressive view of the entire grandiose complex. There are two smaller temples nearby - the Round Temple (Temple of Venus) and the Small Temple. The Temple of Venus lies in ruins. Much better preserved is the Small Temple - the Temple of Bacchus (Bacchus). Unlike the bulk of the Temple of Jupiter, this graceful structure has almost completely retained its central volume and is one of the world's best examples of ancient Roman architecture. Through the portal, covered with the finest carvings, one can get into the inner space of the temple, the walls of which are decorated with a magnificent colonnade. A stone carved altar has also been preserved in the temple of Bacchus.
The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek was begun during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius and completed during the reign of Emperor Nero (37-68 AD). It rises on a terrace made of Cyclopean stone monoliths. The size of these huge blocks inevitably makes one think about the "Asian mode of production", when thousands of people, sticking around like ants, giant stone blocks, hewed and dragged them tens of miles away, constructing monuments overwhelming with their grandeur to pagan gods and deified leaders and pharaohs during their lifetime. The dimensions of the largest monoliths of the Baalbek terrace are 19.1 × 4.3 × 5.6 m, and the weight of one such block is 750 tons!
On the terrace, unshakable like a rock, stand six of the tallest columns on Earth - the remains of the Temple of Jupiter. Today, this fragment of an ancient colonnade, covered with a two-meter-high carved stone frieze, has become an architectural symbol of Lebanon, it can be seen on stamps, banknotes, advertising materials and even on the forms of official documents. French writer Barre once said: "If Baalbek's six columns fall, the world will lose some of its splendor."
It weighs approximately 1000 tons, which is called the "South Stone", and it is the largest processed stone in the world. Its dimensions are so huge that a person who climbed on it looks like an insect on a large suitcase.
It weighs about 1000 tons, which is called the "South Stone", and it is the largest processed stone in the world. Its dimensions are so huge that a person who climbed on it looks like an insect on a large suitcase.
The emperor of Theodosia in the 4th century ordered the construction of a cathedral in the middle of the central square of the acropolis.
Emperor Justinian ordered to break down the porphyry columns of the acropolis square and transport them to Constantinople. The columns have come a long way again. Again passes through the mountains, again loading in the Beirut harbor on ships, again traveling by sea, to the new capital.
What is Baalbek today? Surprisingly, the turbulent and deplorable fate of the city and the acropolis could not completely wipe it off the face of the earth. Roman and Lebanese architects built so thoroughly and seriously that most of everything in Baal-bek remained from the Roman era, and not from the times of Christians and Muslims.
This does not mean that much has survived from Roman times, but if you consider that almost nothing remained of Byzantium, or the Crusaders, or the Caliphate, the comparative power of the pagan gods is obvious.
The six colossal columns, the staircase and the platform of the Temple of Jupiter still make an amazing impression on everyone who has visited Baalbek. The yellowish warm stone lights up when the sun sets, and the columns, visible from many kilometers away, seem to be an Arc de Triomphe, a gate that leads nowhere.
The altar in the central square of the acropolis, freed from the ruins of a Christian cathedral, rises above the slabs and fragments of columns that have rolled down from the top of the temple. Some of the porphyry columns of the central square are still intact, covering the entrances to the niches, in which statues of heroes and gods once stood. The Christian Puritans of the first centuries of Byzantine time smashed the statues. What they failed to do was accomplished by the Muslim dervishes.
Of the large temples of Heliopolis, the best preserved is the Temple of Bacchus. From a distance, he seems completely unscathed. This is not true. Walls and columns were left only on two sides. The temple is so strong and imposing - precisely as a temple, as a work of art, and not as a picturesque ruin - that it now hosts international drama and music festivals. Every year the best theaters and orchestras in the world come to Baalbek, and spectators gather in a pagan temple, larger than any concert hall of our time. Once a year, Baalbek comes to life. And if in this temple they used to worship the cheerful and fickle gods of Antiquity, then the Mother of God, then Mohammed, now the pagan times of Venus and Jupiter have returned to Baalbek. The temple was given to the muses.