Ba'al /Cliff Simon Thunk,Discussion and Appreciation

[Cheerful Dragon]

A few weeks ago I spent a week in Syria. The high point for me was the Temple of Ba'al at Palmyra. It's big - not on the same scale as the temples at Karnak and Luxor, but one of the group said he didn't realise we were actually in it! I took a few pictures and here they are, as promised. A few of the pictures are at an angle. The temple's not on a slope. It's just that the sun was so bright and there was so much glare that I couldn't see the LCD screen on my digital camera, even with a screen hood. I couldn't be bothered to keep re-taking shots, so this is what I took. I'll do one per post, to make life simpler.



This is the entrance to the temple with broken columns at the foot of the wall. The man whose head just crept into the shot is my husband.

[Cheerful Dragon]

This is the colonnade at the side of the temple.

[Cheerful Dragon]

This is the side wall of the temple complex.



The people who built the temple used lead as mortar to hold the stones together. The small holes in the wall are where later people melted the lead to extract it, either for sale or to re-use it.

[Cheerful Dragon]

Some of the temple columns.



The little things jutting out about halfway up would have had statues on them. All the statues have been lost.

[Cheerful Dragon]

The sacrificial entrance.



Animals that were to be sacrificed to Ba'al were lead through this archway and along a sunken path to the altar.

[Cheerful Dragon]

The sacrificial altar.



Not much more to say, except that the area around the altar was sunk to allow the blood to run off. No human sacrifices, just cattle and sheep. It sounds like pigs were 'unclean', even to pagans.

[Cheerful Dragon]

A tower built by the Muslims.



The Temple of Ba'al has been used as a church and as a mosque. The Muslims also fortified it. This is the remnants of a tower they built using stones from the temple, including pieces of fallen columns.

[Cheerful Dragon]

The house of the god.



This is the 'cella', literally the 'house of god'. Ba'al was actually believed to live here.

[Cheerful Dragon]

The moon god's shrine.



The moon god, Aglibol, was also worshipped in Ba'al's temple.

[Cheerful Dragon]

The sun god's shrine.



The sun god, Yarhibol, was worshipped here, too. Both the sun and moon gods' names end '-bol', which could be a corruption of "Ba'al" or 'lord'.

[Cheerful Dragon]

Just outside the temple I saw this:



The way the man is standing with his left hand raised made me think of this picture of Cliff:

[Arctic Goddess]

Cheerful Dragon:

What remarkable pictures!!!

I really enjoyed looking at them.

You sould put them on the Galaxy of Stars Website so Cliff can see them. I'm sure he would really enjoy them.

[CKO]

Oohhhhhhh those are lovely C-D

[Cheerful Dragon]

Cheerful Dragon:

What remarkable pictures!!!

I really enjoyed looking at them.

You sould put them on the Galaxy of Stars Website so Cliff can see them. I'm sure he would really enjoy them.

I posted them on the Galaxy of Stars forum before I posted them here, even though Cliff's not likely to see them before next week. I have my priorities right - the photos go on Cliff's forum first!

[Arctic Goddess]

I posted them on the Galaxy of Stars forum before I posted them here, even though Cliff's not likely to see them before next week. I have my priorities right - the photos go on Cliff's forum first!

Way to go, girl!!!!