H. H. Kitchener described its location as "on top of a very commanding, steep, and narrow ridge, difficult of access... in this, the wildest part of the country".

[1][2][3] Descriptions of the temple in the mid-19th century describe the remains of 16 columns,[2] with 10 still standing in 1852, of which four on the east and three on the northwest still held architraves with Doric-style capitals.

[4] In his 1852 travels to the region, Edward Robinson wrote: The whole area is now full of fallen columns, architraves, and the like; but there does not appear to have been any interior building or fane.

This picturesque mass of ruins... ought to be thoroughly examined... Bélat was very probably dedicated to the Magna Dea Calestis, or Venus (Βλάττα ὄνομα ̓Αφροδίτης κατὰ τοὺς φοίνικας, Lydus de Mens.

[1] He described it as "one of the most perfect and earliest specimens of a temple dedicated to some deity worshipped on this "high place," and attended by a number of priests or votaries who were lodged in the surrounding buildings.