Temple of Baalbek/St. Anthony

Monday was devoted to an organized tour of the magnificent roman ruins at Baalbek and the last remaining cedar forest in the middle east. Fantastic trip through history – the Temple of Baalbek was one of the largest and most noble roman temples ever built in the Roman Empire outside of Rome. And much of its original detail and architecture still exists today. The Phoenicians settled in Baalbek as early as 2000 BC and built their first temple dedicated to the God Baal, the Sun God, from whom the city gets its name. With the arrival of Alexander the Great, the city became known as Heliopolis. With temples to both Venus and Bacchus dominating the site, there were doubtless many wild parties taking place amongst these columns, not to mention human and animal sacrifice as well as public prostitution between the citizens’s wives and daughters and the temple priests in order to please Astarte, the goddess of lust, fertility, sexuality and war. Under the Greeks, Astarte became known as Aphrodite and under the Romans, Venus.

At the end of the day the tour took us to the monastic caves of St. Anthony, my namesake. Unexpectedly, I had a kind of profound connection with this place, knowing that the monks who worship here are doing so to honor the original St. Anthony of Egypt –Christianity’s first hermit-- who went to live in the desert in order to pray for the salvation of the world while being tempted by desires of the flesh.