Baalbeck & Tiahuanaco

The tragic story behind these sights

 Baalbeck
• Baalbek was also known as Heliopolis (Ἡλιούπολις,
Greek for "Sun City") and people were living there in
the Bronze Age, that is, around 2900 BC - 2300 BC.
The city
remained under
Greek rule until
64 BC, when the
Romans
conquered it
For the construction of the
wall, the Romans used
large boulders, weighing
400 tons, then on these
boulders were placed 3
other monoliths of more
than 750 tons each,
forming the "trilithon", an
imposing construction.
The entrance to
Baalbek today is
from the east,
through the
propylaea of twelve
columns, built by
the Roman
Emperor Caracalla.
In 1860 the conflicts of the Ottomans
with the Druze and the Christian
Maronites combined with the severe
earthquakes that hit the area,
destroyed a large part of the
monumental buildings of the city.
 • Tiahuanaco or
Tiahuanacu is a pre-
Columbian
archaeological site in
Tiahuanaco
western Bolivia, capital
of a pre-Columbian
empire that flourished
between 400 and 900
AD
It is located near the
southern shores of
Lake Titicaca at about
12,549.2 feet (3,825.0
m) above sea level
near La Paz, Bolivia.
 The lintel is carved with 48 squares surrounding a central
figure. Each square represents a character in the form of winged
effigy. There are 32 effigies with human faces and 16
anthropomorphic figures with the heads of condors.
The area of Tiwanakos has been
inhabited since 1500 BC, when it was a
small rural settlement. [2] During the
period between 300 BC and 300 CE,
Tiwanaku is considered to have been the
moral and cosmological center of the
Tiwanaku Empire and a place of
pilgrimage.
THE END