Baalbek Travel Guide

Out in the wide Bekaa Valley, Baalbek holds the most staggering Roman ruins anywhere outside Rome itself — and arguably the most jaw-dropping, because almost no one sees them coming. The Romans called it Heliopolis and built a temple complex on a scale they never repeated. The six surviving columns of the Temple of Jupiter stand 22 metres tall, among the largest ever raised; nearby, the Temple of Bacchus is so complete and so finely carved that it makes better-known sites look modest.

Reaching Baalbek means crossing the mountains from Beirut into Lebanon's fertile wine country, an experience in itself. In summer the temples become a stage for the Baalbeck International Festival, when orchestras and singers perform among the floodlit columns. Go for the scale, stay for the strange quiet of standing alone beneath stones that have humbled visitors for two thousand years.