Baalbek Reborn takes you on a virtual tour of the Roman temples in Baalbek, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Lebanon.
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Presented by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the German Archaeological Institute and Flyover Zone
Baalbek Reborn was created through a collaboration of the German Archaeological Institute, the General Directorate of Antiquities of the Lebanese Ministry of Culture, and Flyover Zone. The tour is offered to the people of the world free of charge thanks to the generosity of Bassam Alghanim, who donated the funds in loving memory of his parents, Yusuf and Ilham Alghanim.
The commentary was prepared by the experts of the German Archaeological Institute, which has sponsored research in Baalbek since 1997. On your tour, you can use the Time Warp feature to see the site as it looks today and also see the ruins spring to life as they appeared in the third century of our era when the ancient Roman sanctuary was in its heyday. Highlights of the tour include the sanctuary of Jupiter, one of the largest temple complexes of the Roman world, and the shrines conventionally called the Temple of Bacchus, the Temple of Venus, and the Temple of the Muses.
Audio: Arabic, English, French, German
Subtitles: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Producer:
Bernard Frischer
Project Manager:
Henning Burwitz
Tour Guide/Narration:
Bernard Frischer (English)
Henning Burwitz (German)
Paula Abou Harb, Wormhole Architecture (French)
Marc Yared, Wormhole Architecture (Arabic)
Scientific Advisors:
Margarete van Ess
Henning Burwitz
Holger Wienholz
Script:
Henning Burwitz
Holger Wienholz
Scientific Reconstruction:
Henning Burwitz
Holger Wienholz
3D Modeling:
Lasha Tskhondia
Art Direction:
Mohamed Abdelaziz
Contributors:
Daniel Lohmann
Friederike Hoebel
Davide Angheleddu
Carter Conaway
Annewies van den Hoek
Laure Salloum, Directorate General of Antiquities, Lebanon
Captions:
Henning Burwitz (German)
Paula Abou Harb, Wormhole Architecture (French)
Marc Yared, Wormhole Architecture (Arabic)
Ambra Spinelli (Italian)
Nancy Peniche May (Spanish)
Tiao-Guan Huang (Chinese)
Image Credits:
Photographs of the statuettes of Jupiter Heliopolitanus (AO 19534, AO 22267): Musée du Louvre
Aerial panoramas: Maxar Technologies
Created By:
Flyover Zone Productions
German Archaeological Institute
Special Thanks:
Daniel Lohmann
Friederike Hoebel
Davide Angheleddu
Carter Conaway
Annewies van den Hoek
Laure Salloum
The team dedicates its work to the memory of Yusuf and Ilham Alghanim.
The team expresses its gratitude to:
Directorate General of Antiquities, Lebanon
Musée du Louvre
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- O. Puchstein – B. Schulz – D. Krencker – H. Kohl, Zweiter Jahresbericht über die Ausgrabungen in Baalbek, JdI 17, 1902, 87−123
- T. Wiegand (Hrsg.) – B. Schulz – H. Winnefeld, Baalbek. Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen in den Jahren 1898−1905 (Berlin 1921)
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- P. Collart – P. Coupel, L’autel monumental de Baalbek (Paris 1951)
- P. Collart – P. Coupel, Le petit autel de Baalbek (Paris 1977)
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- N. Jidejian, Baalbek Heliopolis „Cité du Soleil“ (Beirut 1998)
- M. van Ess – T. Weber (Hrsg.), Baalbek. Im Bann römischer Monumentalarchitektur (Mainz 1999)
- E. M. Ruprechtsberger (Hrsg.), Vom Steinbruch zum Jupitertempel von Heliopolis/Baalbek (Libanon) (Linz 1999)
- M. van Ess – K. Rheidt, Archaeological Research in Baalbek. A Preliminary Report on the 2004 and 2005 Seasons, BAAL 9, 2005, 117–146
- M. van Ess – J. Abdul Massih – N. Chahine – V. Daiber – H. Ehrig – S. Feix – B. Fischer-Genz – H. Genz – F. Henze – K. Hitzl – F. Hoebel – H. Lehmann – D. Lohmann – J. Nádor – K. Rheidt – D. Rokitta-Krumnow – A. Seif – F. Wakim – H. Wienholz – J. Yasmine, Baalbek/Heliopolis. Results of the Archaeological and Architectural Research 2002−2005, BAAL Hors-Série IV (Beirut 2008)
- F. Hoebel, Ein frühkaiserzeitlicher Pseudoperipteros in Heliopolis/Baalbek (Libanon). Genese des „Musentempels“ im Spannungsfeld italischer und lokaler Einflüsse, in: L. Schmidt – A. Bantelmann (Hrsg.), Forschen, Bauen & Erhalten, Jahrbuch 2008/2009 (Berlin 2008) 73−83
- Z. Sawaya, Histoire de Bérytos et d’Héliopolis d’aprés leurs monnaies, Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 185 (Beirut 2009)
- M. van Ess – K. Rheidt (Hrsg.), Baalbek-Heliopolis. 10 000 Jahre Stadtgeschichte (Darmstadt 2014)
- F. Hoebel, Zwischen Orient und Okzident. Die Kultbauten im Areal Santa Barbara, in: M. van Ess – K. Rheidt (Hrsg.), Baalbek-Heliopolis. 10 000 Jahre Stadtgeschichte (Darmstadt 2014) 80−91
- K. Hitzl, Römischer Glanz versus Provinzialität. Skulptur von Baalbek, in: M. van Ess – K. Rheidt (Hrsg.), Baalbek-Heliopolis. 10 000 Jahre Stadtgeschichte (Darmstadt 2014) 74−79
- D. Lohmann – H. Wienholz, Auf dem Weg zu Jupiter. Die Architektur eines römischen Heiligtums als inszenierte Bildfolge, in: D. Kurapkat – P. I. Schneider – U. Wulf-Rheidt (Hrsg.), Die Architektur des Weges. Gestaltete Bewegung im gebauten Raum, DiskAB 11 (Regensburg 2014) 233−247
- D. Lohmann, Das Heiligtum des Jupiter Heliopolitanus, in: M. van Ess – K. Rheidt (Hrsg.), Baalbek-Heliopolis. 10 000 Jahre Stadtgeschichte (Darmstadt 2014) 60−73
- K. Rheidt, Orient – Rom – Byzanz. Zur städtebaulichen Entwicklung Baalbeks in antiker und byzantinischer Zeit, in: M. van Ess – K. Rheidt (Hrsg.), Baalbek – Heliopolis. 10 000 Jahre Stadtgeschichte (Darmstadt 2014) 158−167
- D. Lohmann, Das Heiligtum des Jupiter Heliopolitanus in Baalbek. Die Planungs- und Baugeschichte (Rahden/Westf. 2017)
Highlights
Preview in 3D
Help rebuild Beirut
The Directorate General of Antiquities in Lebanon, with its supporting cultural heritage experts, is launching a series of vocational training courses on heritage crafts. They will encompass skills such as traditional carpentry, stone masonry, the manufacture of wooden roofs, and lime plastering. Arc en Ciel, a Lebanese non-profit NGO created in 1985 during the Lebanese civil war, will receive the donations and manage this training as part of its mission to support sustainable development, education and employment, the promotion of the built heritage in Lebanon, and the rehabilitation of historic houses affected by the explosion of August 4, 2020. The vocational training will take place in one of the most damaged historical houses in Beirut. Its masonry walls and triple bays, now in a state of collapse, have long symbolized the city’s 19th century architecture. It will represent one of the first professional efforts to preserve and revive Beirut’s disappearing craftsmanship. Not only will the project save a unique heritage house, but it will also, most importantly, revive and make habitable again the dwellings which since the blast have been abandoned. It will also serve as a necessary training and educational experience for about 100 young people, artisans, and workmen, to create a skilled workforce for the support of Beirut’s restoration projects. By reviving Beirut’s lost traditional workmanship, the training will pave the way for salvaging the best practices of restoration while raising awareness about the importance of heritage preservation.
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*By clicking this link, you acknowledge that Arc-en-Ciel is not affiliated with Baalbek Reborn. Baalbek Reborn provides the link as a courtesy in case you wish to consider supporting the work of Ar-en-Ciel on behalf of the people of Lebanon.