The Shining Ones - 1997

BA'ALBEK

An Akkadian tablet from some four thousand years ago states:

All we great Anunaki [Anannage]
Decided together on a rule
Anu and Addad would rule the Highlands
I [Enlil] would rule the Lowlands

In this stanza, the Highlands and the Lowlands are relative terms. We know that Enlil, the Lord of Cultivation, ruled in Kharsag so that, here, the Lowlands refer to that irrigated plain as distinct from the surrounding mountains. The Highlands, therefore, were the higher parts of the Lebanon area. In these parts, today, there exist the magnificent ruins of Ba’albek to remind us of the almost incredible achievements of gods and men in times so remote that the mind has difficulty in comprehending the span of it.

These ruins comprise an architectural complex the description of which includes such superlatives as having columns among the tallest ever constructed on earth; the largest stone blocks ever used for any purpose; and the boldest architectural engineering feat ever carried out in the ancient world.