Written by Melik Kaylan,

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A first glimpse of Baalbeck’s six 72-feet-high Corinthian columns will instantly raise your spirits and turn unease into adventure. Like the Parthenon or the Pyramids, the Baalbeck complex is one of the glorious monuments of history. No matter which angle you look from, the two lofty temples—to Jupiter and to Bacchus—seem to ride the sky and will intoxicate your faculties. You will know how it feels to be a besotted idolater.

The site sits astride a north-south thoroughfare of history, being the place where trouble flowing down from the north (Syria) meets trouble coming up from the coast (Beirut). In recent years, the Bekaa Valley was home to guerrilla training camps. The Lebanese Civil War shut down the annual Baalbeck International Festival—and its presentations of music, dance and theater—from 1975 to 1996. The Hezbollah-Israel war did the same for a year in 2006. Nowadays, when the festival is in full swing a shop set into the ancient walls sells Hezbollah banners and T-shirts.