Baalbec

David Roberts visited Baalbek in 1839 and spent several days drawing the temple ruins, these drawings became the basis of no less than eighteen oil paintings. This image of Baalbec presents a dramatic scene of classical grandeur, illuminated by bright sunlight, complemented by a large area of deep shade. The dramatic scene is enhanced by the three groups of figures, dwarfed by the massive scale of the ruined temple, Roberts often used this technique from his early experience in painting theatre backgrounds. Baalbek is a town in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon and famous for its massive and richly ornamented Roman temple ruins. When this area of the Middle East was part of the Roman Empire, Baalbek was known as Heliopolis. There are three temples at Baalbek, the largest is the Temple of the Sun. It was the largest religious building in the entire Roman Empire, it was worked on for more than fifty years and never completed. Today there are only six Corinthian columns standing, eight others were dismantled by order of the Emperor Justinian and sent by boat to Constantinople [modern day Istanbul] to be used in the construction of the basilica Sancta Sophia. There are two lesser temples dedicated to Venus and Bacchus. The temple of Bacchus remains the best preserved of all. The site was shaken by three earthquakes in the 12th century and once again in 1759.