BA'ALBEK. — Ancient city of Celestria between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, at an elevation of 1170 m., in the fertile Bekaa Valley, near the sources of the Litani; its origin, which legend associates with Solomon, is unknown; the name Ba'albiki is found in ancient Assyrian and Egyptian inscriptions. The first part of the name indicates the city as a principal center of the Phoenician worship of Baal, whereas the derivation of the second part is uncertain. The Greeks, identifying their sun god with Baal, called it Heliopolis, while the Romans spoke of the Jupiter of Heliopolis. Alongside Jupiter, Mercury and Venus also had temples there and, as coins from the 1st century show, under Augustus the city was made a Roman colony under the name Julia Augusta Felix. The emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161) built a magnificent temple to the aforementioned divinities, which was completed by his successors down to Caracalla (211–17). A temple was also built to Bacchus. The emperor Theodosius (379–95) destroyed the great temple and built a Christian basilica in front of II.
The present-day city, east of the ancient city, has approximately 8,000 inhabitants (Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Melkite Catholics and Maro-
nites, “Orthodox”). It is famous for the gigantic ruins of its acropolis, largely excavated by the Germans in 1900–1904, on which stood the great temple of Jupiter (or of the Sun), approximately 20 m. high, and the small temple of Bacchus. The northwestern enclosure walls are made of colossal blocks. The base, 7 m. high, consists of stones averaging 9 m. in length, 4 m. in height, and 3 m. in thickness. Three titanic blocks form the course of the western side, each measuring more than 19 m. in length, 4 m. in height, and 3 m. in thickness. In the history of art, Greek art adapted by the Romans is displayed here (barrel vaults), the Romans having imitated the grandiose constructions of the Egyptians.
Possibly from the 2nd century, and certainly from the time of Constantine (Eusebius, Vita Const., III, 58: PG 20, 1125), B. was an episcopal see of the district Phoenice Libanensis; around 400 it depended on the metropolitan see of Damascus. Seized by the Arabs in 634 and hotly contested during the Crusades, B. today has two Eastern prelates (Catholic): a Melkite bishop (with approximately 7,500 faithful in 14 parishes) and a Maronite (“minor”) archbishop, residing at 'Aramān (Lebanon); the Maronite eparchy, not earlier than 1670, numbers approximately 42,000 faithful in 71 parishes, with approximately 120 priests and 30 monks.