Baalbek, Lebanon - general view & Grande Cour - postcard c.1920s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Baalbek [Lebanon] - vue generale de la Grande cour
• Publisher: none stated
• Postally used: no
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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Baalbek (/ˈbɑːlbɛk/),^[1] properly Baʿalbek^[2] (Arabic: بعلبك‎, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) and also known as Balbec,^[3]Baalbec^[4] or Baalbeck,^[5] is a city in the Anti-Lebanon foothills east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about 85 km (53 mi) northeast of Beirut and about 75 km (47 mi) north of Damascus. The capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate,^[6] Baalbek has a population of approximately 82,608,^{[citation needed]} mostly Shia Muslims, followed by Sunni Muslims and a minority of Christians.^[7][8] It is reckoned a stronghold of the Shi'a Hezbollah movement.^[9] It is home to the annual Baalbeck International Festival.

A few miles from the swamp from which the Litani (the classical Leontes) and the Asi (the upper Orontes) flow, Baalbek may be the same as the mbk nhrm("Source of the Two Rivers"), the abode of El in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle^[10]discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation.^[11][12]

Heliopolis is the latinisation of the Greek Hēlioúpolis (Ἡλιούπολις), meaning "Sun City"^[13] in reference to the solar cult there. It is the earlier attested of the two names, appearing under the Seleucids and Ptolemies.^[14] Ammianus Marcellinus, however, does note that earlier "Assyrian" names of Levantinetowns continued to be used alongside the official Greek ones imposed by the successors of Alexander.^[15] In Greek religion, Helios was both the sun in the sky and its personification as a god. The local Semitic god Baʿal Haddu was more often equated with Zeus or Jupiter or simply called the "Great God of Heliopolis",^[16][a] but the name may refer to the Egyptians' association of Baʿal with their great god Ra.^[14][b] It was sometimes described as Heliopolis in Syria or Coelesyria (Latin: Heliopolis Syriaca or Syriae) to distinguish it from its namesake in Egypt. In Catholicism, its titular see is distinguished as Heliopolis in Phoenicia, from its former Roman province Phoenice. The importance of the solar cult is also attested in the name Biḳāʿ al-ʿAzīz borne by the plateau surrounding Baalbek, as it references an earlier solar deity and not later men, named Aziz. In Greek and Roman antiquity, it was known as Heliopolis. It still possesses some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in Lebanon, including one of the largest temples of the empire. The gods that were worshipped there (Jupiter, Venus, and Bacchus) were equivalents of the Canaanite deities Hadad, Atargatis. Local influences are seen in the planning and layout of the temples, as they vary from the classic Roman design.^[19]

The name bʿlbk is first attested in the Mishnah, a second-century rabbinic text, as a geographic epithet for a kind of garlic, shum ba'albeki (שום בעלבכי).^[20] Two early 5th-century Syriac manuscripts, a c. 411^[18] translation of Eusebius's Theophania^[21][22] and a c. 435^[23] life of Rabbula, bishop of Edessa.^[24][18] It was pronounced as Baʿlabakka^[25] or Baʿlabakku (بَعْلَبَكّ) in Classical Arabic.^[12] In Modern Standard Arabic, its vowels are marked as Baʿlabak^[26] or Baʿlabekk^[27] (بَعْلَبَك) or Bʿalbik^[26](بْعَلْبِك), the latter of which is pronounced [ˈbʕalbik] in Lebanese Arabic.^{[citation needed]}

The etymology of Baalbek has been debated indecisively^[19] since the 18th century.^[12] Cook took it to mean "Baʿal (Lord) of the Beka"^[18] and Donne as "City of the Sun".^[28] Lendering asserts that it is probably a contraction of Baʿal Nebeq ("Lord of the Source" of the Litani River).^[13] Steiner proposes a Semitic adaption of "LordBacchus", from the classical temple complex.^[12]

On the basis of its similar name, several 19th-century Biblical archaeologists attempted to connect Baalbek to the "Baalgad" mentioned in the Hebrew Scripture's Book of Joshua,^[29] the Baalath listed among Solomon's cities in the First Book of Kings,^[30][31] the Baal-hamon where he had a vineyard,^[32][4] and the "Plain of Aven" in Amos.^[33][34]