A Temple For Baccus, A Poster For Nasrallah

Built on the backs of thousands of slaves, the temples in Baalbek are some of the most expansive and beautiful in the Roman world. Edward Gibbon said in his landmark work, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that, "Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive empire, the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind." Architecture is one of the vestiges the Romans left behind, it most definitely ranked highly amongst them.

The Baalbek temple complex is for lack of better terms, grandiose. There is the temple to Baccus, god of wine. The temple is a rectangular shape, surrounded by Corinthian columns, its also one of the few temples that still looks as it might have in Roman times. While massive in its own respect, the temple pails in comparison to the gigantic erect columns that belonged to the Temple of Jupiter. The marble columns are as thick as three to five grown men and stretch far into the sky. The art work is quite significant, there are carved lions heads that at one time spouted water or wine. Designs on the side of the temples looked like stylized swastikas, depictions of gods preforming tasks, and even graffiti dating from Roman times until the present.

Baalbek is a microcosm of Lebanon, and truly highlights Lebanon's irony. Standing atop the high ground that used to make up much of the Temple for Jupiter, I could see a modern built mosque, in the form one might find in Iran, coated in colorful tiles and with a huge dome. The mosque had a sign outside of it showing how Hizbollah had built it. Next to Heliopolis, the ancient name of the Baalbek complex, was a Greek Orthodox church, its bells were ringing. There were more yellow Hizbollah flags than there were Lebanese. In front of the Baalbek temples were gift shops catering to who other but Western tourists. What did they sell in the gift shops? Hizbollah flags, Nasrallah posters, Coca-Cola (note: Coke is on the boycott list for many Arab states because they sell to Israel), small trinkets, and more Hizbollah gear such as T-shirts and baseball caps. $10 for a Hizbollah flag!

I was in a group of about 30 Westerners, so Hizbollah decided to keep an eye out for us. It sent three cars to watch us as we went to the temples, little children shouted curses at us such as "sharmouta" (whores/bitches in Arabic) and then tried to get high fives from us. Trash cans in Baalbek had USA or painted American flags on them. I was a bit upset by the fact that these people quite literally ran a state within a state. One Canadian in the group told me, "there is a lot of anger with them, you know Israel was bombing this area last year." Another Westerner turning the aggressors into victims. Even so, Western tourists are the bread and butter of Baalbek's economy, no other people were visiting the complex. Lebanon is known for how considerate and hospitable its people are, and these people were in my view getting orders from the top (remember Hizbollah is incredibly well organized with a complicated hierarchy) to essentially watch and even harass Westerners.

I snapped an interesting picture of a sign near the road down to the temple complex, it said, "south for reconstruction." What was so ironic about it was that the Lebanese flags that were atop the sign were in tatters, the sign was ripped, coated in dirt and dust, and had marks all over it. This reminded me of Ian Bremmer's book, The J Curve. Bremmer shows how closed societies will remain authoritarian and unfree in nature, and how open societies remain free. Hizbollah doesn't want rebuilding or economic success in Baalbek, they want stagnation and failure. They know the anger created can be used against those whom they accuse of being outside enemies/agitators: the United States and Israel. Through isolation comes power.

An isolated group amoungst the mostly Shi'ite city of Baalbek is the Christian community. I found a beautiful Greek Orthodox church opposite the temple site. They were holding a Greek mass and I went in to observe. Other Westerners with me followed, we sat in the back pews, recieving stares from the locals. While Lebanon is generally becoming more mixed, sectarian division are still extraordinarily deep. If the Christians of Baalbek can't find a modus vivendi with the ruling Shi'ite Hizbollah they would surely be displaced or eliminated.

Short video I made of the ruins in Baalbek:

Another Short video I made of the Greek Orthodox mass I attended:

Incase those links didn't work:

1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ8Ro-ymCu0

2.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fEk3PBVHJo

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*Next Post will cover the trip to Bcharre