Colonnade of the Ruins of the Omayyad Mosque
Christians built their churches and basilicas right on the spots of traditional pagan worship in order to discourage and destroy pagan religions. It is thus common to find pagan temples converted into churches or churches built on the fore-courts of pagan temples. Muslims, too, wanted to discourage and eliminate pagan religion but they tended to build their mosques some distance away from the temples.
This photograph, taken in the late 19th or early 20th century, shows the ruins of the Great Mosque of Baalbek. Constructed during the Omayyad period, either in the late 7th or early 8th century, it is on the site of an ancient Roman forum and uses granite taken from the Baalbek temple site. It also re-uses Corinthian columns from older Roman structures found around the forum. Byzantine rulers converted the mosque into a church and the succession of wars, earthquakes, and invasions have reduced the building to little more than what can be seen here.
Today Hezbollah maintains a very strong presence in Baalbek - Iran's Revolutionary Guards trained Hebollah fighters on the temple grounds during the 1980's. The city was thus targeted by drones and air strikes by Israel during their invasion of Lebanon in August, 2006 leading to hundreds of properties in the city being damaged or destroyed, including the hospital. Unfortunately, all of these bombs created cracks in the Temple of Bacchus, undermining its structural integrity which has withstood centuries of earthquakes and wars.
A number of large stone blocks within the temple site also crashed to the ground.
These attacks may have actually strengthened Hezbollah's position because they were able to take over security in Baalbek as well as provide charitable relief to those who lost things during the attacks, thus raising their credibility in people's eyes.
This photograph, taken in the late 19th or early 20th century, shows the ruins of the Great Mosque of Baalbek. Constructed during the Omayyad period, either in the late 7th or early 8th century, it is on the site of an ancient Roman forum and uses granite taken from the Baalbek temple site. It also re-uses Corinthian columns from older Roman structures found around the forum. Byzantine rulers converted the mosque into a church and the succession of wars, earthquakes, and invasions have reduced the building to little more than what can be seen here.
Today Hezbollah maintains a very strong presence in Baalbek - Iran's Revolutionary Guards trained Hebollah fighters on the temple grounds during the 1980's. The city was thus targeted by drones and air strikes by Israel during their invasion of Lebanon in August, 2006 leading to hundreds of properties in the city being damaged or destroyed, including the hospital. Unfortunately, all of these bombs created cracks in the Temple of Bacchus, undermining its structural integrity which has withstood centuries of earthquakes and wars.
A number of large stone blocks within the temple site also crashed to the ground.
These attacks may have actually strengthened Hezbollah's position because they were able to take over security in Baalbek as well as provide charitable relief to those who lost things during the attacks, thus raising their credibility in people's eyes.