The Acropolis of Baalbeck, in the Beqaa valley 85 kilometers from Beirut, is the largest and best preserved corpus of Roman architecture left to us. Its temples, dedicated to Jupiter, Venus and Bacchus, were built in the second and third centuries A.D. The ruins present a majestic ensemble: two temples, two courtyards proceeded by propylaea (ceremonial entrances) and a boundary wall upon which Arab architecture has left its traces. Six immense columns still roar upwards from the holy place where the temple of Jupiter once stood.

The Beqaa valley is the old “Coele Syria” of the Latin, the granary of ancient Rome. This great fertile plateau, 176 km long and 15 km wide, was in times past a route for caravans from the east and north.

Traces have been found of the many peoples who have passed here. Some merely through-Egyptians, Hittites, Persians, crusading Franks, others lingered - the Greeks, Roman and Byzantines – while some like the Arabs settled down.