BALBEC.

Those rumed shrines and towers, that seem
The relics of a splendid dream;

Amid whose fairy loveliness

Naught but the lapwing's cry is heard;
Naught seen but (when the shadows, flitting
Fast from the moon, unsheath its gleam)
Some purple-winged SULTANA* sitting
Upon a column motionless,

And glittering like an idol bird.

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But naught can charm the luckless Peri;
Her soul is sad; her wings are weary;
Joyless she sees the sun go down
On that great temple, once her own ;†
Whose lonely columns stand sublime,
Flinging their shadows from on high,
Like dials which the wizard Time

Had raised to count his ages by.

"AMONG the traces," says Sir J. Malcolm, "of a great nation's former glory, there is none upon which the mind dwells with more serious thought than on the magnificence of its ancient palaces. How forcibly are we reminded of our condition, when told that an edifice, in the erection of which a kingdom's wealth had been exhausted; which was adorned with every ornament that the art of the world could supply, and whose history was engraven on the imperishable rocks with which it was constructed, had not only fallen into decay, but that its founder was unknown, and the language in which its history was inscribed no longer numbered among the tongues of

*That beautiful bird, with plumage of the finest shining blue, with purple beak and legs, the natural and living ornament of the temples and porticoes of the Greeks and Romans, which, from the stateliness of its port, as well as the brilliancy of its colours, has obtained the title of Sultana.-SONNINI.

The temple of the sun at Balbec.

man!" These observations are peculiarly applicable to Balbec.

This city stood in the road between Tyre and Palmyra; its history is, nevertheless, so lost in obscurity, that, considering the splendour and magnificence of its remains, we are astonished! Scarcely anything of its history is known; and even its existence appears to have been concealed for many centuries from the Romans.

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Tradition states that it was built by Solomon; and for the truth of this the Jews quote the following passage from the second book of Chronicles :* "Also he (Solomon) built Beth-horon the upper, and Bethhoron the nether, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars; and Baal-ath."

For the greater confirmation of this, it is declared that Balbec is meant when Solomon says "the tower of Lebanon, that looketh towards Damascus."

The

Arabs go even so far as to assert that this city was built by the king as a residence for the Queen of Sheba; and Sir William Ouseley quotes a passage, wherein it is mentioned that a tradition in Persian implies that Solomon often passed his day at Balbec, and his night at Istakr.

The names Heliopolis and Balbec are words of different languages, which have nearly the same signification. The sun was worshipped by the ancient inhabitants of the country under the name of Baal. Balbec signifies the vale of Baal, and Heliopolis the city of the sun.

That Balbec derived not only its religion, but its very name, from Heliopolis in Egypt, is rendered certain by a passage in Macrobius: "In the city called Heliopolis, the Assyrians worship the sun with great pomp, under the name of the Heliopolitan Jove; and the statue of this god was brought from a city in Egypt, also called Heliopolis, where Senu* Chap. viii., 5, 6.

VOL. I.-N

mens or Senepos reigned over the Egyptians, by Opios, ambassador from Delebor, king of the Assyrians, together with some Egyptian priests, of whom Partemetis was the chief, and it remained long among the Assyrians before it was removed to Heliopolis."

The same author adds, "That he declines giving the reason for this fact, or telling how the statue was afterward brought to the place, where in his time it was worshipped more according to the Assyrian than the Egyptian rites, as circumstances foreign to his purpose.

A's Balbec was never the seat of a monarch, antiquaries are greatly at a loss to conceive how the expense of these magnificent structures could have been supplied by private or municipal liberality. The Orientals, however, explain the prodigy by a never-failing expedient: they were constructed, say they, by the fairies or genii!

That these temples did not exist when Pompey went through Heliopolis to Damascus is probable, because the writers of that time, who mention less remarkable structures with admiration, take no notice of any such buildings; and it is certain that they did exist in the time of Caracalla, because Heliopolis is to be seen on many of his coins; and vows in favour of him and his empress are recorded in two inscriptions, the remains of which are still to be seen on the pedestals of the columns of the great portico of the temple.

That Heliopolis was constituted a colony by Augustus Cæsar is rendered probable by some medals which still remain, and in which it is called "Colonia Julia Augusta;" but it was not till the time of Septimius Severus that the temple was impressed on the reverse of the coins.

When we consider the extraordinary magnificence of the great temple of Balbec, we cannot but be greatly surprised at the silence of the Greek and Roman

authors in respect to it. Mr. Wood, who has carefully examined all the ancient authors, has found no mention of it, except in a fragment of John of Antioch, surnamed Malala, who attributes the building of it to Antoninus Pius. His words are: "Elius Antoninus Pius built a great temple at Heliopolis, near Libanus, in Phoenicia, which was one of the wonders of the world." Some Roman medals also have been found, upon the reverse of which is a representation something similar to that temple, with the inscription "COLONIA HELIOPOLITANA JOVI OPTIMO MAXIMO HELIOPOLITANO.

One circumstance, however, militates against the idea that Antoninus Pius was the builder of this temple, viz., that Julius Capitolinus says nothing about it, though he gives a list of that emperor's buildings, and speaks of others of much less consideration. It must, however, be remembered, that the work of Julius Capitolinus is known to be so extremely defective, that though Antoninus reigned one-and-twenty years, and transmitted to posterity the character of one of the best princes that ever ruled, yet the particulars that merited such extraordinary praise are utterly unknown.

Gibbon thus remarks upon the different fortunes of Balbec and Emesa: "Among the cities which are enumerated by Greek and Oriental names in the geography and conquest of Syria, we may distinguish EMESA and HELIOPOLIS; the former as a metropolis of the plain, the latter as the metropolis of the valley. Under the last of the Cæsars they were strong and populous; the turrets glittered from afar; an ample space was covered with public and private buildings; and the citizens were illustrious by their spirit, or at least by their pride; by their riches, or at least by their luxury. In the days of paganism, both Emesa and Heliopolis were addicted to the worship of Baal, or the sun, but the decline of their superstition or splendour has been marked by a singu

lar variety of fortune. Not a vestige remains of the temple of Emesa, which was equalled in poetic style to the summits of Mount Libanus; while the ruins of Balbec, invisible to the writers of antiquity, excite the curiosity and wonder of European travellers."

In the reign of Heraclius its garrison was strengthened, that it might be enabled to withstand the Arabs; and when Christianity gained the ascendancy under Constantine, he shut up many pagan temples; but it was Theodosius who changed its temple to a Christian church, the walls of which are still standing. The conversion of it into a fortress was the work of the caliphs, called the Ommiades, when this part of the world fell under their government; an incurious, and, therefore, an ignorant race, during whose time nothing is recorded of Balbec, although it was then a considerable city. The ancient name, Balbec, during this time was restored instead of Heliopolis, which was probably a translation of Balbec, or at least substituted for it when it passed out of the possession of its native Oriental inhabitants.

In Ebn Haukal's* Oriental geography, Balbec is mentioned thus: "Beyond the borders of Demeshk is Baalbek, situated on an eminence. Here are the gates of palaces, sculptured in marble, and lofty columns, also of marble. In the whole region of Syria there is not a more stupendous or considerable edifice than this."

The approach to this ruined city is thus described by Bruce: "The form of Mount Libanus, as seen from the plain of Bekka, is this: first, a range of mountains, extremely proper for culture, and of no considerable height, sloping easily to the plain, and covered with trees that are not very thickly planted. On the other side of these rises a chain of mountains of an extraordinary height, bare for the most part and stony, cut by every rain, and covered with snow except in summer. Thus they continue till

* An Arabian traveller in the tenth century.