The Temple of Jupiter is the centrepiece of the Baalbek complex and one of the most ambitious building projects ever attempted in the Roman world. Construction began under Augustus and continued for over two centuries, the sheer scale suggesting that the emperors intended to outdo every previous temple in the empire. Of the original 54 columns, only six still stand — but those six alone convey the ambition of the whole.
You approach the temple through the Propylaea (the monumental entrance gate) and then through a hexagonal forecourt and the vast Great Court, where two large sacrificial altars still occupy their original positions. Climbing the broad staircase to the temple platform, you get a sense of how the building would have dominated the Bekaa Valley for miles in every direction.
The foundation is equally staggering. Walk around to the western side and look down at the Trilithon — three enormous stone blocks, each roughly 20 metres long, set in the lowest course of the podium. They were quarried about a kilometre to the south, at the site now called the Stone of the Pregnant Woman.