Qualla: Temple of Bacchus https://qualla.com/temple-of-bacchus en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/1/9/temple-of-bacchus-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Temple of Bacchus https://qualla.com/temple-of-bacchus Temple of Bacchus: Introduction https://qualla.com/temple-of-bacchus/ Photo credit Leon petrosyan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Forty-two Corinthian columns once ringed its exterior, each rising nearly 20 meters from Ionic bases. Nineteen still stand. They frame a doorway whose lintel -- cracked by the 1759 earthquakes, propped by a rough masonry column in the 1860s -- hides an eagle carved into the soffit, a Roman imperial emblem now buried behind its own emergency repair. The Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek is the kind of ruin that makes you reconsider what "ruin" means: at 66 meters long, 35 meters wide, and 31 meters high, it remains more intact than most cathedrals half its age.

Read more: Temple of Bacchus on Qualla

Image: Leon petrosyan | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/1/9/temple-of-bacchus-wp/sy19-temple-of-bacchus-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Temple of Bacchus: Wine God in a Mountain Valley https://qualla.com/temple-of-bacchus/ Photo credit Jerzy Strzelecki, CC BY-SA 3.0. The attribution to Bacchus -- the Roman god of wine, ecstasy, and ritual madness -- rests largely on the carved dancing Maenads that decorate the interior parapets. These wild-haired followers of Dionysus (Bacchus's Greek counterpart) appear in stone relief along the inner walls,...

Read more: Temple of Bacchus on Qualla

Image: Jerzy Strzelecki | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/1/9/temple-of-bacchus-wp/sy19-temple-of-bacchus-wine-god-in-a-mountain-valley.mp3 0:06 2 full Temple of Bacchus: Stone That Outlasted Its Builders https://qualla.com/temple-of-bacchus/ Photo credit Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0. The temple continued in use for roughly four centuries before fire destroyed it in 554 AD. Then it vanished from the historical record. No written account mentions the site until the fourth century, and after the fire, the rubble of surrounding structures may have paradoxically p...

Read more: Temple of Bacchus on Qualla

Image: Vyacheslav Argenberg | CC BY 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/1/9/temple-of-bacchus-wp/sy19-temple-of-bacchus-stone-that-outlasted-its-builders.mp3 0:06 3 full Temple of Bacchus: The Architecture of Excess https://qualla.com/temple-of-bacchus/ Photo credit BlingBling10 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Walk inside and the scale shifts again. The cella -- the enclosed inner chamber -- is decorated with Corinthian pilasters flanking two tiers of niches on each side. A 98-foot nave leads to a 36-foot adytum, the innermost sanctuary, raised five feet above the main floor and reache...

Read more: Temple of Bacchus on Qualla

Image: BlingBling10 at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/1/9/temple-of-bacchus-wp/sy19-temple-of-bacchus-the-architecture-of-excess.mp3 0:06 4 full Temple of Bacchus: A Temple Between Wars https://qualla.com/temple-of-bacchus/ Photo credit Heretiq, CC BY-SA 2.5. Baalbek's modern history mirrors Lebanon's own turbulence. The Baalbek International Festival, launched in 1956, brought orchestras and dancers to perform among the columns -- a scene of cultural optimism that the civil war interrupted. The site has survived not only the original...

Read more: Temple of Bacchus on Qualla

Image: Heretiq | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/1/9/temple-of-bacchus-wp/sy19-temple-of-bacchus-a-temple-between-wars.mp3 0:06 5 full