But there is a problem with this for academics, because this of course would have to mean that
when the Romans had constructed the Temple of Jupiter, they had done so on a platform that had
been previously constructed by a far more ancient party who at this stage remains unknown and
they certainly don’t want to bring up that “Ancient Civilization” thing again.
A notable point in this issue is that the Roman Empire was well known to have been quite an
egotistical regime and yet we find no claim to building the incredible retaining wall anywhere in
Roman records. There still exists, actual texts that record Roman transport capabilities during the
reign of many Roman Emperors, including Augustus. These records clearly show that the load
limit for the transportation of big blocks elsewhere in the Roman empire at the time was just a
little over 300 metric tons and that was achieved only with the greatest amount of difficulty. The
highly celebrated transportation of the 323 ton Laterano Obelisk to Rome, for example, was an
enormously difficult and dangerous task that spanned the reign of three emperors. And yet we
find that transportation of the massive 800 ton blocks at Baalbeck for the Temple of Jupiter is not
mentioned in Roman records anywhere at all. This fact also raises immediate questions.
Fig.31 (man in foreground)It is also very worth noting that by the reign of Augustus, the Romans also knew about, and
very often used, concrete. The Coliseum still standing in Rome today is a good example of a
classic Roman concrete structure. It has simply never been in Roman style to build with
megalithic blocks. In fact such megalithic architecture appears no where else at all in the entire
Roman Empire. It is also significant that Ptolemys conferred the title of Heliopolis upon Baalbek.
For him to have given the place that particular title, it stands to reason that Baalbeck had to have
been an ancient holy place and must have already had some notable architecture or some
significant connection to the other Heliopolis (Sun City), also part of Ptolemys' domain in Egypt.
And there’s still a further clue: In 636 AD the Temple of Jupiter was taken over by the Arabs
who turned it into a fortress, also doing some further construction of their own. This means that
the blocks used in the Arab sections of Baalbeck were laid about 650 years after the blocks of the