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

The Beqaa valley is the old "Coele Syria" of the Latins, 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 came through - Egyptians, Hittites, Persians, crusading Franks. Others lingered and settled -- the Greeks, Romans and Byzantines Caesarea