Baalbek: Im bann romischer monumentalarchitektur.

• Author: Beckman, Gary
• Position: Review

Baalbek: Im Bann romischer Monumentalarchitektur. Edited by M. VAN Ess and TH. WEBER. Sonderbande der Antike Welt. Mainz: PHILIPP VON ZABERN, 1999. Pp. viii + 151, illus. DM 78.

This beautiful volume celebrates the renewed access of scholars and tourists to the site of Baalbek after more than twenty years during which travel there by outsiders was dangerous if not impossible, due to the conditions of the Lebanese civil war. Twenty-one scholars have contributed one or more sections of the text, which covers every period from prehistory to the present day. Emphasis, of course, is on the monumental Roman architecture, represented by the Jupiter and "Bacchus" Temples. The building history of the former is followed from its construction, through its conversion to a basilica in late antiquity, to its use as a fort during the Islamic period.

Particularly interesting is...