Baalbek
— — stones too large for the empire that left them.
Not only on a wall.
“A Roman temple complex on the eastern flank of the northern Beqaa, between Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon. The columns of the Temple of Jupiter stand twenty-two metres high, six of fifty-four still upright across two millennia. The Temple of Bacchus next door is the best-preserved Roman temple anywhere. The largest cut stones in the foundation weigh close to a thousand tonnes each.
Baalbek, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Baalbek sits in the northern Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, at about 1,170 metres of elevation, between the Mount Lebanon range to the west and the Anti-Lebanon range to the east on the Syrian border. The town lies roughly eighty-five kilometres northeast of Beirut. Under the Romans, who took the site from the Seleucids in 64 BCE, it became the colony of Heliopolis and the home of the largest temple complex anywhere in the Empire. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1984.
The Temple of Jupiter, dedicated under Nero and finished under Antoninus Pius, originally carried fifty-four Corinthian columns; six remain standing, each twenty-two metres tall and roughly 2.2 metres in diameter. The Temple of Bacchus, built in the second century, stands largely intact with its forty-two columns and ornamented inner chamber. In the foundation of the platform, the trilithon stones each weigh around 800 tonnes. The Stone of the Pregnant Woman, still in the quarry south of the site, weighs close to 1,000 tonnes.
Baalbek is reached by road from Beirut, about two hours northeast across the Mount Lebanon range through the town of Chtaura. The site is open daily with timed entry, and a small museum in the vaults beneath the Jupiter platform displays sculpture and inscriptions recovered from the ruins. The Baalbek International Festival, founded in 1956, stages classical concerts and theatre against the columns of the temples each summer in July and August. Travelers should check current Lebanese travel advisories before booking.