Roman Heliopolis & Temple Site at Baalbek in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley

Temple of Jupiter, Temple of Bacchus, and Temple of Venus

Located in Lebanon's Beqaa valley, 86 km northeast of Beirut and 60 km from the Mediterranean coast, Baalbek is one of the best least-known Roman sites in the world. Based around temples to the developing Roman trinity of Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus, this complex was constructed upon an older sacred site dedicated to a triad of Canaanite deities: Hadad, Atargatis, and Baal. All around the temple complex of Baalbek are tombs cut into the rocks from the Phoenician era centuries earlier.

The transformation from a Canaanite to a Roman religious site began after 332 BCE when Alexander conquered the city and initiated a process of Hellenization. In 15 BCE Caesar made it a Roman colony and named it Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Heliopolitanus. That's not a very memorable name (which may be why it was more commonly known simply as Heliopolis), but it was from this time that Baalbek itself became more famous -- in particular because of the massive temple of Jupiter which dominates the site.