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Show i I r if ' aanV" & N c x I W-Ti vfc 7" SI i " " TT y - '4 T t "The Bride of Baal" !" llJ if i I ,1 II' II V v k . t:I O J Painting by the Distm- ? V ? i' A Vr $ W s &aSf ' ' . V J" F ' i V, X f Su!shed Artist, Henry Jy';l.te:;5''r!-;::-, V "'s.:'-; Motte, which Recreates Arrangements Being Made to Excavate tke Ruins :"v-.rW: of Baal-Bek, Where Was the Greatest ;ffefevV Temple of the Ancient Pagan Deity IIPl-S? "T H Wno Devoured Women and Bates pTTTTTOffi The Acropolis of Baal-Bek, Showing the Six Columns of the Rumed Temple of the Sun, and Beside it the V ' . 'A I ," ' V ..''t5"'. ' ' . ' Ruins Over the Site of the Ancient Shrine of Baal, Where Thousands of Women and it C i , , V " "f C ' -. I ' " 5 ' ' J " . i Children Were Slaughtered s . - f A 'v" iVitLV'- f jVit-, f w , , , i ' By Dr. Clifton Harby Levy. But the worship of Baal ran the whole length, from ea t to west. The portico i ' , t fr S? KJ?'Yk"'" ? ' T , " , ' ' m . . , . gamut of cruelty. Its priests specialized at the western end, having been reached s V s t VV). '"k- , i FOBESV10ST among the expeditions not only ln tne destrucUon o bables but by a broad ght of stair This court 1 ' ' - '.vJj';, - W . , , i preparing to excavate c.fes and ot women, and tnis latter wa3 aocompanied 260 feet from north to south There! ', V V ' -' ' ' r " " 1 ' C ' sites ot ancient, long-vanished civ- by unspeakable degradatlon. The bad ft tnpIe entrance lnto The flr t 1 ' r ' M ' ! , nations in the lands now wrested from their hold upon the higb and Iow aIlke, court, hexagonal in shape, Td 250 L f ,0 , ' 5 C, . ' I . . , i 9,. Turks, will be a combined American and score3 upon score3 o the maldens oI from corner to corner A gateway 50 feet 'A, v 5 .'V' T; , j A t . 4 A lnd English party which wil, work among tneir race went t0 sacrifice. wlda. mth a mailer door rtalde ten : A' V' S f , s :he ruins of Baal-Bek, wh.se origin is lost - 0ne of the most curious of the e mas- feet wide lead into the great quadrate t " , ' 'A 4 ' A , i y : SeKcS graded under the name of "The Bnde wh1Ch sketches out from east to west 440 ' ' )V 5 , vl Sver created. of Baal." ) A ' ' T J ( V, " f Baal-Bek is in Christian hands now for In a crypt of the Temple of Baal at Baal ,A ' -i ' . ,! j - ' the first time in all history. And it is a Bek and also in Carthage, Tjre and all vT"i' r ? ' 'A ' , " " ' w ,A , ' ' ; !em, the cities where the Prince of Teace shipped there was a gigantic stone statue . T v ' 4 'i'c "" 1 ' ir- ! lived and taught, and the dwelling place of the monster. It sat within a pit and at 'sf ' S A' ' - i- , "J, ' " ' ' 3f the deity as far distant from Him as its feet roamed lions. Regularly ijaal was VT4 "SA d i " V ' f -, Oie poles, both passing into the possession " 'Ai ' , s v of Christendom S,ven a bride-probably once a month 1 , -, N - ' For years archaeological science has These brides were the most beautiful of v" A ' ' ' ' 'v 1 ' ( ?ast covetous eyes uion Baal-Bek. But the daugliters of the nobles. The pne W " 1 -""t 'j1 - ; , ' , ' like hundreds of similar treasure houses selected those they thought the god would Closer A"v i ' ,i ' " j v ' 5f knowledge and it may be said actually ijie. The unhappy victim was then taken v. 5 t , ' ' ' N houses of treasure itself the ancient ith elaborate ceremonies into the enpt View j if ! ' ' t f ' i shrine of Baal was locked to it. The and piaCed upon a cushion upon the lap of of the " 1 '' 1 K f v Turks, mainly through relislous prejudices, the Btatue. There she was left without e- ' ! . 'w " t did not' allow Western research within the tood or drink and with the lion prowling 31X f , " A "' " '"' . . i places they held. The few expeditions beiow ber. She could not leave the god Columns l.M K x9 J-r.m . :C' ;..",' ' '" -J"J' which were permitted to work here and because the only way to do so would be f .1 J; . : i,S : :'':!!s .. ?,i there in the territory were hampered 1n to cast herself down at the beasts. or tne -. s-4 ;s : : svery possible way by the officials under But aI1 tbe evidence is tbat atter the Sun m ::, ' .-S-.5 -'y'i't , nnrfv nf thB T A f1, . , ... , .. , the influence of the Mohammedan priests. people had been duped bv the ceremonies , 1 , , forUl of ae Baal Temple and though this nothing wa too ile for the priesthood of The Turks, never n scientific race, spent, the priests themselves stole back, fel the temple. ; -,, ; ,: y :.,..f.m : . . f; Is much smaller than the main temple 01 this god. of course, no time themselves upon ex- Hons, rescued the maiden for themselves r- ft CS l i iK? KfM the chief deity it is still considerably Readers of the Bible will remember that 'TnTwhat aroused the ire and regret of Sertresana8 "after' "a Vmeshe too" wa ' 1 famUS Parthenon at mclted Queen Jeebel the wife science was that this race held three-quar- fVed It "probable that th inner i J AtbSn8 The 0lUmn of thls temDle are of KmS Ahab m Tvra ters of all the places where scientific re- shHne ot wickedness still with its statue m -S ? ' r:.A .'. 46 feet tall Including the Corinthian capi- and brought with her the worship of Baal search would best be rewarded. Among wiI1 be found beneath the Temple of Baal . : A ? . jUF.rf,-'., tela, and each is 19 feet in circumference, to the ivory palace and temple which was them, as has-been said, Baal-Bek was m at Baal-BeV A ' ' ' '.' t Thev upported an entablature 7 feet ,n built in the city of Sam rr and that the nraTtchnn and the expedi- JtSnow ' i V 4 ? ' te.ght which supported the richly carved prophets of Israel and Judah often up tion formins will be fully equipped to open nt., it stands, perhaps, as the ole con '" A ceiling which ran back, to the wall, made braided the people for then abandoning up the crypts and tunnels known to exist temporary of Damascus, acknowledged to . ST A LjL U j - v. U j .')'' J' i up of slab carved with magnificent tig the norhip of the true God and -aenfle- beneath the shattered Roman 1 temple to the be the oldest city in the world It un '.A '(IK ' M , - t j' j( ures of godB and heroes ing their children to Bnl milinthem sun that was built on the foundations of wrjtten history nrobablv runs back tr thn t. 1 -tr- i. 1 i . , mv 7 , , -"i un-i uu mi mem the more ancient Teniae of Baal, and S CoHhoenS c!iLt T , 4 ' A 1 ' A , The circular temnle tand to the east, to "Pass through the Are This or hip which (have been closed for acres. but bow much further back it goes we ' ( ' ? v " A and wblle the Bmaneot f all is Oi mo t v,a practi ed upon the high place ' and What light will be brought out of their shall not know until thorough and deep ' , , T A J beautiful workmanship and de ign B.i-ht n the groves and even upon the terraced pagenoSfS the "Tast wT be restored, of J3 have been made beneath it 'C - , r' V iJ Corinthian columns are about the court roofs of the houses (II King XI1I 12) course; new llsht thrown upon world mys- ,uJJj, Hs or Baa. ''.-:' y. "A T. " !- . lt-:iA'A and within are smaller pillars in a double In every temple of Baal was a figure of terles: treasures of gold and silver an Bek wag a great city , ''- " s .v-; y'y row, the lower Ionic, the upper Corinthian. . the god differing in shape according to Jewels, perhaps; treasure more precious- on i,ie direct road be- .. - - ' . . . . . . -. , , ' ., ... 1 This was used as a Greek church as lato the special idea connected with his wor- ricoverr n7lnere,'waBP: ' J.WAi a 1 H of the unspeakable cruelties and wicked- "ulated th wealtn & i t A - """ ' ' - "-"" A. Traveller have reported about the in tance, he mlht take on the form of nesses which were perpetrated in the name the luxurv and the cor- ' 'f4 S tusv ' 7 " " 1 -t-"-'"'' beauty of these temples for seventeen cen Dagon, the half man half fl h god for the 0fT?.a,'iI'-0. ti,D .rnri f the, Phopni ruptlon of the early V ' " . , vA'(i;. A turies pa t, but so long as the Turk was Tvrlan and Sldonian were the seafarer clans anTwa known as Bel among the S?:!"'S,tcven;2a adl t" S ' V' ' ' Z - - ? "" A j, A" control no real work of excavation or of ancient day and the.-god had to be a Babylonians, but it was the former who rttle'av there P - . ifi -jst ' sSjito . ' - , , ' lecon truction could be attempted A fe-w god of the sea een th ugh originally a developed his system of worship in ways worship was Atfis J- Z A 4 - -T A" I v "t"' columns have been set up but the real land deity The altar of the god was which are to-day almost incredible. In hiphest in Baal.Bfik, f "" . - ..l.- f I-" " '-,' " 'A- work of going down to the depths and sometimes a huge stone sjmbolizlng his oreBa Zeb -"--A - " '-IjA "i" ' ' " " ' from the ruins learning the history of control over the earth, and incense was . Carthage, which was founded by the Phoe- ,f'i!'ter3ioraittv ""of - " " ' - A. , ' , Baal Bek ha been Impossible burned Mbations of wine and oil weru nicians and to which his worship was theecjtv Here 'it was h " , f 'r T1"9 surface mins are magnificent in poured sacrifices of animals offered and V "lH.A1" alAn that Gelanius became V V-A." V5 S " - , , their proportions being all that are left of the children were burned to Moloch, an- outstnndlnra a martyr, and Con- , ' , T great Roman temple bu.lt during the sec other form of Paal The statue there, and also at Tyre, was stantine issued a proc- r .W ' , 1. ond Christian centurj, and dedicated to In II Chromrlps Chapter xxvili we r. d of metal and gigantic. By ingenious mech- aa j!n againA ,1 V St- v r ( BaalJupiter It wa the practice ot the that King Ahaz ' made molten images for anisnis the eyes opened and shut, and the building a ' 4 - - - - 1 Roman to accept the religion practices Baalim ' (the Hebrew plural for Paal) and mouth was a huge cavern with movable Ef . . uullu't " v it 1 5, 1 r? P j T , , i""" r"'i ana jaws. The arms also were movable, with Christian church hero ( of con5uered race merely calling the moreover he burnt incen-e in the valley the hands arranged to carry a burden. to counteract the pa- ; t - . ,Jtt. H temples by the names of Roman deitle of the son of Hinnom and burnt his chll The body of the god itself was simply a t'nfl"!3- bf.,u"u 1- t. - " t - 4UW ' bt really a Imilating the population dren ln the fire after th- abomination of w"ere our srtTrdsKa Z'ZZ h.A-. A' eas.,y by fonowing thejr religious prao the heathen whom the Lord had est out By Dr. Clifton Harby Levy. FOREMOST among the expeditions preparing to excavate cities and sites of ancient, long-vanished civ-1 civ-1 .Izatfons in the lands now wrested from Ibe Turks, will be a combined American md English party which will work among ;he ruins of Baal-Bek, whese origin is lost In the mists of antiquity and which was the home ot the cruelest god mankind has sver created. Baal-Bek is in Christian hands now for the first time in all history. And it is a curiously imagination-stirring thought that Lhls year has seen Nazareth and Jerusa- !em, the cities where the Prince of Peace lived and taught, and the dwelling place 3f the deity as far distant from Him as the poles, both passing into the possession Df Christendom. For years archaeological science has ?ast covetous eyes upon Baal-Bek. But like hundreds of similar treasure houses 3f knowledge and it may be said actually N houses of treasure itself the ancient N shrine of Baal was locked to It. The Turks, mainly through religious prejudices, did not' allow Western research within the places they held. The few expeditions which were permitted to work here and t.Viorn in the territory were hampered 1n svery possible way by the officials under the influence of the Mohammedan priests. The Turks, never a scientific race, spent, of course, no time themselves upon excavating. ex-cavating. And what aroused the ire and regret of science was that this race held three-quarters of all the places where scientific research re-search would best be rewarded. Among them, as has-been said, Baal-Bek was in tbe foremost rank. Now all this is chanced and the expedition expedi-tion forming will be fully equipped to open up the crypts and tunnels known to exist beneath the shattered Roman temple to the sun that was built on the foundations of the more ancient Temn.e of Baal, and which have been closed for acres. What light will be brought out of their darkness cannot be predicted. Many a page of the past will be restored, of course; new light thrown upon world mys teries: treasures of gold and silver ancr Jewels, perhaps; treasure more precious-than precious-than these to science certainly but whatever what-ever is discovered it is sure to be revellent of the unspeakable cruelties and wickednesses wicked-nesses which were perpetrated in the name of Baal. Baal was the great god of the Phoenicians Phoeni-cians and was known as Bel among the Babylonians, but it was the former who developed his system of worship in ways which are to-day almost incredible. In the Tew Testament he Is called P.elzebub. or Baal Zebub the father ot lies. In Carthage, which was founded by the Phoenicians Phoe-nicians and to which his worship was transferred in all its horror; the ritual of Vfhe sacrifice of children was one of the outstanding atrocities. The statue there, and also at Tyre, was of metal and gigantic. By ingenious mechanisms mech-anisms the eyes opened and shut, and the mouth was a huge cavern with movable jaws. The arms also were movable, with the hands arranged to carry a burden. The body of the god itself was simply a buge brazier in which under forced draft were burned aromatic woods and "sacred" Inflammable substances. At the bottom of the gullet was a metal screen somewhat like a grate. At the times of ceremony the priests started the Are within the body of the image. Hundreds of babies and small children, drawn from all classes, were broujht to the temple. One by one they were placed upon the outstretched hands of the god. T'nder the manipulation of the priests the eves rolled, the mouth opened, the arms lifted, and when they touched the metal mouth they rolled the sacrifice within. The child dropped down tbe iron gullet, fell imon the grate and was incinerated in the flames beneath. After these sacrifices and during them, because the numbers of victims were so creat. the calcined bones off these little Innocents were taken out and placed In small stone coffins, whinh formed a part of the "records" of the tcmnle. Thousands of these little coffins have been found un der the ruins of the Temple of Baal af Carthage and they will, no doubt, be "e of the first mementos of the devilish riles JT that will be encountered hv the scieutists. r . t Baal-Bek But the worship of Baal ran the whole gamut of cruelty. Its priests specialized not only In the destruction of babies but of women, and this latter was accompanied by unspeakable degradation. They had their hold upon the high and low alike, and scores upon scores of the maidens of their race went to sacrifice. One of the most curious of these masqueraded mas-queraded under the name of ' The Bride of Baal." In a crypt of the Temple of Baal at Baal-Bek Baal-Bek and also in Carthage, Tyre and all the other cities where the god was worshipped wor-shipped there was a gigantic stone statue of the monster. It sat within a pit and at its feet roamed lions. Regularly ijaal was given a bride probably once a month. These brides were the most beautiful .of the daugliters of the nobles. The priests selected those they thought the god would like. The unhappy victim was then taken with elaborate ceremonies into the crvpt and placed upon a cushion upon the lap of the statue. There she was left without tood or drink and with the lions prowling below her. She could not leave the god because the only way to do so would be tn foot horcolf flnwn at flio boacta But all the evidence is that after the people had been duped by the ceremonies the priests themselves stole back, fel the lions, rescued the -maiden for themselves and made her a slave of their wiles and desires, and after a time she. too. was slaughtered. It is probable that this inner shrine of wickedness still with its statue will be found beneath the Temple of Baal at Baal-Bel;. The original city of Baal-Bek is so old that no one knows when or by whom it was built.j It stands, perhaps, as the sole con-temporary con-temporary of Damascus, acknowledged to be the oldest city in the world. Its unwritten un-written history probably runs back to the earliest days of Phoenician civilization, but how much further back it goes we shall not' know until thorough and deep excavations have been made beneath its ruins. Heilopolis. or Baal- Bek, was a great city on the direct road between be-tween Tyre and Palmyra, Pal-myra, and there was accumulated ac-cumulated the wealtn, the luxury and the corruption cor-ruption of the early Christian centuries, for Christianity had made little way there. Pagan worship was at ils highest in Baal-Bek, md the early Christian writers expatiate upon the immorality o f the city. Here it was that Gelanius became a martyr, and Constantino Con-stantino issued a proclamation proc-lamation against the licentiousness of its people, building a Christian church hero to counteract the pagan pa-gan Influences, but under un-der the Emperor Julian the pagan population broke forth in persecution persecu-tion of the Christians? and the city became such a byword among Christians that when length, from east to west. The portico is at the western end, having been reached by a broad flight of stairs. This court is 260 feet from north to south. There Is a triple entrance leading into the first court, hexagonal in shape, and 250 feet from corner to corner. A gateway 50 feet wide, with a smaller door at each side, ten feet wide, leads into the great quadrangle which stretches out from east to west 440 One of the Monoliths lhat Mark the foundations of the First Great Temple Under Which Excavations Will Soon Be Begun. taat 1 Tl .! n t. ...., J,U P X i .... , ..i,x ' i i j one of them in Alexandria was to be severely severe-ly puuished, he was banished to Baal-Bek. The city continued to be a splendid place, filled with temples and palaces, up to the time of the Moslem invasion. After Damascus had been taken by the Turks the turn of Baal-Bek came, and in 74S it was sacked and the inhabitants put to the sword. During the twelfth century it was shaken by earthquakes several times, as if God were shaking the wickedness out of the city of horror, and since that time it has never been of either military or commercial importance. The ancient city was some four milfs in circumference, surrounded by great defensive de-fensive walls. Its ruined temples are now the most striking feature, consisting of the great temple to Baal-.Iupiter. the Temple of the Sun and that of Venus or Astarte. The Gr.-'at Temple of Baal stood upon a broad platform extending 1,100 feet ln ice quv. u&o & uicaum ul oiu iKei, covering cover-ing an area of some four acres. On all sides, except the eastern, where the stairway stair-way led up to the entrance of the Temple, the court was surrounded by rooms or recesses, inclosed by lofty pillars, adorned with many statues of the gods and heroes. The peristyle of the temple proper had some fifty-four columns, ten in front and nineteen on each side. Each column was 62 feet tall, 7 feet in diameter at the base, sloping to 5 feet at the top. They were crowned by beautifully carved Corinthian capitals, and bore an entablature 14 feet high. That part of the great platform on which the peristyle rests consists of immense walls built up some 60 feet from tbe ground, formed of thirteen courses of bevelled stones in alternate layers of longer and shorter blocks. Outside these walls, at a distance of 29!i feet, is another Copyright. 191S, by Star Company. sunstructure, duiil 01 large stones, ana containing con-taining three blocks of such extraordinary size that the temple was at first called the "Trilithon" or "Three-Stone Temple." These enormous monoliths measure 64 feet, 63 feet 8 inches and 63 feet In length, are 13 feet in height and have been raised 20 feet from the ground in the western wall. Two underground passages, 17 feet wide and 30 feet high, rnn from east to west along the sides of the platform of the great quadrangle and are connected by a transverse tunnel. While marks on the walls indicate that the Roman soldiers utilized these tunnels, here may possibly be one of the relics of the ancient sy?tem of underground passages through which the priests of Baal made their way secretly secret-ly to all parts of the temples, transporting their victims or working supposed miracles in the name of Baal. The great Temple of the Sun Is Just Great Britain Rights Keaerved. north of the Baal Temple, and though this Is much smaller than the main temple of the chief deity it is still considerably larger than the famous Parthenon at Athens. The columns of this temple are 45 feet tall, including the Corinthian capitals, capi-tals, and each is 19 feet in clrcumference. They supported an entablature 7 feet in height which supported the richly carved ceiling, which ran back to the wall, made up of slabs carved with magnificent figures fig-ures of gods and heroes. . The circular temDle stands to the east, and, while the smallest of all. is ot most beautiful workmanship and design. Eiirht Corinthian columns are about the court and within are smaller pillars in a double row, the lower Ionic, the upper Corinthian. This was used as a Greek church as lato as the eighteenth centurv. Travellers have reported about the beauty of these temples for seventeen cen turies past, but so long as the Turk was in control no real work of excavation or reconstruction could be attempted- A few columns have been set up. but the real work of going down to the depths and from the ruins learning the history of Baal-Bek has been Impossible- The surface ruins are magnificent In their proportions, being all that are left of great Roman temples built during the second sec-ond Christian century, and dedicated to Baal-Jupiter. It was the practice ot the Romans to accept the religious practices of conquered races, merely calling the temples by the names of Roman deities, but really assimilating the population easily by following their religious nrar tices and calling them Roman. The city of Baai-BeK was called Heliopollc, City of the Sun, by the Greeks and Romans, and was a city of Syria, lying at the base of wcoicm Biupej ui tne i n 1 1-1 veoanon mountains, to the north of Palpstine. The three temples were all devoted actually, ac-tually, even in Roman times, to the worship wor-ship of Baa and his consort Ashtoreth, the Semitic name for Venus. In the Babylonian Baby-lonian worship ishtar temples were the places in which the most abandoned type of worship was practised, and she is the original of the Greek Astarte. the Roman Venus. I'pon these temples the Romans lavished tbe best that they nossessed of cyclopaean art, using huge stones for walls and monoliths, and the most elaborate col umns and carvings that their architects could devise. But beneath all this magnificence of out ward seeming, which was to impress the worshipper, lay the old worship of the Phoenician Baal, with all of the practices which the priests of this cruel divinty could devise. The worst, wickedness v.-.-is throuded in the sacredness of worship, and nothing was too vile for the priesthood of this god. Readers of the Bible will remember that wicked Queen Jezebel, who was the wlfo of King Ahab of Israel, came from Tvre and brought with her the worship of Baal to the ivory palace aud temple which was built in the city of Samaria, and that tho prophets of Israel and Judah often upbraided up-braided the people for their abandoning the worship of the true God. and sacrificing sacrific-ing their children to Baal, makine them to "Pass through the Are." This worship was practised upon the high places'' and In the groves, and even upon the terraced roofs of the houses (II. Kings. XXIII.: 12). In every temple of Baal was a figure of the god differing in shape according to the special idea connected with his worship wor-ship in that place. At Tvre and SIdon, for instance, he might take on the form of Dagon, the half-man. half-flsh god. for the Tyrlans and Sidonians were the seafarer of ancient days and their god had to be a god of the sea. even though originally a land deity. The altar of the god was sometimes a huge stone, symbolizing his control over the earth, and incense was burned, libations of wine and oil were poured, sacrifices of animals offered- and the children were burned to Moloch, another an-other form of Baal. In II. Chronicles. Chapter xxvill.. we tz. d that King Ahaz 'made molten images for Baalim' (the Hebrew plural for Baal)-and "moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom. and burnt his children chil-dren ln the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel" (verse 3)- The priests prayed and shouted to Baal, led dances around the altar, as is related in the contest of the Prophet Elijah with the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, and ln their frenzies "cut themselves with knives and lancets till they were all covered cov-ered with blood." (I. Kings, xviil., 26-28 1. There is hardly a period of Jewish history, his-tory, after the people marie their w.-iy into the Promised I and from the Wilderness until their final dispersion that there are not traces of worst, :p of Baal under some form, chi-;iy because of thfcir close association asso-ciation with Phoenicia and those who worshipped wor-shipped Baal a-.'l Ast'.'He. If, then, iho .lews aud j-raclite.s were so easily led astray, notwithstanding their having been taucrht by Mores and the prophets, how to believe in and worship the true God. how much easier v,-a, it for ihe Romans with their far looser Mcr.s of worship, and with their deities not u'nTike the deities 0f Phoenicia to take up this low type of worship when they had conquered con-quered Western Syria. I |