Roman Temple. So consider this conundrum: If the large blocks of the retaining wall were
Roman, then the newer Arab blocks would mark the erosion of the older Roman blocks as they
were after the first six or seven-hundred years since they were laid. Right? So how then, can the
erosion of the large blocks in the retaining wall be so much greater than the erosion of both the
old blocks of the Roman Temple and the newer blocks of the Arab ruins, in the subsequent 1500
years since the Arab section was constructed?
According to local legend, Baalbek had supposedly been a religious centre devoted to Baal in
Phoenician times and local Arab legends actually place the cyclopean blocks of the retaining wall
back to the time of Cain and Abel. Other tales tell that the platform was built by the Gods of old.
Near the southern entrance of Baalbeck is a quarry where the stones used in the temples and
retaining walls were cut. No traces of any ancient road can be found between the quarry and the
Temple which also raises questions on how the enormous 800 ton quarried monoliths were ever
even transported to the site.
This lack of any road can only mean either one of two things: Either the blocks of the retaining
wall were transported so far back in antiquity that all trace of the road has long since disappeared,
or: a road was never required for the task of transporting them. In fact a road would have been of
little use anyway due to the sheer weight of the blocks. The foundations of any road strong
enough to be used for such a task would have to have been truly immense and if such a road had
ever existed some trace of it would undoubtedly still remain today. So how were they moved?
Another huge stone block known as the "Stone of the Pregnant Woman" (fig.32) still now lies
in the ancient quarry where it was cut in antiquity. It measures 21.5m x 4.8m x 4.2meters in size,
weighs an estimated 1,000 tons and is the largest hewn stone to be found anywhere in the world.
Fig.32There is no contractor or crane in the world that is capable of moving these hewn blocks from
the quarry to the temple site. Such a task is still well beyond any of our current transportation
capabilities. In fact I will quite happily donate the entire proceeds from the sale of this book to
anyone who can move this stone from the quarry to the Baalbeck Temple podium.
An Iron Pot in Coal
In 1912, two employees who were shoveling coal in the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas,
Oklahoma, broke apart a larger chunk for the furnaces when, to the surprise of both men, an iron
pot fell of the chunk (fig.33). Several experts subsequently examined the iron pot and it was