10. BAALBEK,LEBANON.

Baalbek..

Baalbek is the great “must do” site if you are in Lebanon. It was categorized as a UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

 Baalbek is a city and temple complex holding one of the finest examples of Imperial Roman architecture. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed but monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire.

After the arrival of the Romans in Phoenicia in 64 BC, Phoenician beliefs and the Greek-Roman pantheon were mixed. Pilgrims worshipped here at the sanctuary of Jupiter, Venus and Bacchus, a succession to the triad of Phoenician fertility gods. The site was given the name Heliopolis.The construction of more and more temples went on into the 3rd century, its colossal size a testimony of Imperial Roman power.

Baalbek nowadays is a mid size town in the Beqaa Valley. The designated area also includes non-Roman heritage, such as the Mameluk mosque of Ras-al-Ain. It is located on two historic trade routes, between the Mediterranean coast and the Syrian interior and between northern Syria and northern Palestine.