Baalbek[a] (/ˈbɑːlbɛk, ˈbeɪəlbɛk/;[5] Arabic: بَعْلَبَكّ, romanized: Baʿlabakk; Syriac: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about 67 km (42 mi) northeast of Beirut.

Other tourist attractions are the Great Umayyad Mosque, the Baalbek International Festival, the mausoleum of Sit Khawla, and a Roman quarry site named Hajar al-Hibla.

For instance, in 2006 during the Operation Sharp and Smooth, Israeli commandos raided a hospital and bombed multiple houses, killing two Hezbollah fighters and at least eleven civilians.

[26] A few kilometres from the swamp from which the Litani (the classical Leontes) and the Asi (the upper Orontes) flow, Baalbek may be the same as the manbaa al-nahrayn ("Source of the Two Rivers"), the abode of El in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle[27] discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation.

[28][29] Baalbek was called Heliopolis during the Roman Empire, a latinisation of the Greek Hēlioúpolis (Ἡλιούπολις) used during the Hellenistic period,[30] meaning "Sun City"[31] in reference to the solar cult there.

[32] However, Ammianus Marcellinus notes that earlier Assyrian names of Levantine towns continued to be used alongside the official Greek ones imposed by the Diadochi, who were successors of Alexander the Great.

[59] The site of the present Temple of Jupiter was probably the focus of earlier worship, as its altar was located at the hill's precise summit and the rest of the sanctuary raised to its level.

[citation needed] In Islamic mythology, the temple complex was said to have been a palace of Solomon's[60][d] which was put together by djinn[63][64][65] and given as a wedding gift to the Queen of Sheba;[37] its actual Roman origin remained obscured by the citadel's medieval fortifications as late as the 16th-century visit of the Polish prince Radziwiłł.

[f][76] His idol was a beardless golden god in the pose of a charioteer, with a whip raised in his right hand and a thunderbolt and stalks of grain in his left;[79] its image appeared on local coinage and it was borne through the streets during several festivals throughout the year.

[77] Macrobius compared the rituals to those for Diva Fortuna at Antium and says the bearers were the principal citizens of the town, who prepared for their role with abstinence, chastity, and shaved heads.

[77] In bronze statuary attested from Byblos in Phoenicia and Tortosa in Spain, he was encased in a pillarlike term and surrounded (like the Greco-Persian Mithras) by busts representing the sun, moon, and five known planets.

[72] Heliopolis was a noted oracle and pilgrimage site, whence the cult spread far afield, with inscriptions to the Heliopolitan god discovered in Athens, Rome, Pannonia, Venetia, Gaul, and near the Wall in Britain.

In AD 297, the actor Gelasinus converted in the middle of a scene mocking baptism; his public profession of faith provoked the audience to drag him from the theater and stone him to death.

[82] Around the same time, Constantine, though not yet a Christian, demolished the goddess' temple, raised a basilica in its place, and outlawed the locals' ancient custom of prostituting women before marriage.

[citation needed] Michael the Syrian claimed the golden idol of Heliopolitan Jupiter was still to be seen during the reign of Justin II (560s & 570s),[90] and, up to the time of its conquest by the Muslims, it was renowned for its palaces, monuments, and gardens.

[37] It was briefly held by Muslim ibn Quraysh, emir of Aleppo, in 1083; after its recovery, it was ruled in the Seljuks' name by the eunuch Gümüshtegin until he was deposed for conspiring against the usurper Toghtekin in 1110.

[102] He was then joined by the main army, riding north under Baldwin and Humphrey of Toron;[102] they defeated Saladin's elder brother Turan Shah in August at Ayn al-Jarr and plundered Baalbek.

The Shiite 'Usayran family, for example, is also said to have left Baalbek in this period to avoid expropriation by the Harfushes, establishing itself as one of the premier commercial households of Sidon and later even serving as consuls of Iran.

[citation needed] The Englishman Robert Wood's 1757 Ruins of Balbec[2] included carefully measured engravings that proved influential on British and Continental Neoclassical architects.

[139] During the 18th century, the western approaches were covered with attractive groves of walnut trees,[63] but the town itself suffered badly during the 1759 earthquakes, after which it was held by the Metawali, who again feuded with other Lebanese tribes.

Despite finding nothing they could date prior to Baalbek's Roman occupation,[140] Otto Puchstein and his associates worked until 1904[89] and produced a meticulously researched and thoroughly illustrated series of volumes.

Recent cleaning operations at the Temple of Jupiter discovered the deep trench at its edge, whose study pushed back the date of Tell Baalbek's settlement to the PPNB Neolithic.

[145] In the summer of 2014, a team from the German Archaeological Institute led by Jeanine Abdul Massih of the Lebanese University discovered a sixth, much larger stone suggested to be the world's largest ancient block.

[152] On the evening of 1 August 2006,[164] hundreds of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers raided Baalbek and the Dar al-Hikma[165] or Hikmeh Hospital[166] in Jamaliyeh[164] to its north ("Operation Sharp and Smooth").

Spanning several hundred square meters, the exhibitions feature defused Israeli weapons, recreated scenes of war, and photos and videos of Lebanese people killed by Israel.

[190][191] The temple complex was entered from the east through the Propylaea (προπύλαιον, propýlaion) or Portico,[72] consisting of a broad staircase rising 20 feet (6.1 m)[192] to an arcade of 12 columns flanked by 2 towers.

[194] The rectangular Great Court to its west covers around 3 or 4 acres (1.2 or 1.6 ha)[92] and included the main altar for burnt offering, with mosaic-floored lustration basins to its north and south, a subterranean chamber,[195] and three underground passageways 17 ft (5.2 m) wide by 30 ft (9.1 m) high, two of which run east and west and the third connecting them north and south, all bearing inscriptions suggesting their occupation by Roman soldiers.

[citation needed] Inscriptions attest that the court was once adorned by portraits of Marcus Aurelius's daughter Sabina, Septimius Severus, Gordian, and Velius Rufus, dedicated by the city's Roman colonists.

[72] Much of the extant fortifications around the complex date to the 13th century[90] reconstruction undertaken by the Mamluk sultan Qalawun following the devastation of the earlier defenses by the Mongol army under Kitbuqa.

[203] Under a white dome further towards town is the tomb of Khawla, daughter of Hussein and granddaughter of Ali, who died in Baalbek while Husayn's family was being transported as prisoners to Damascus.