The American Architect
The ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1923NUMBER 2426
THE TEMPLE CITY of BAALBEK
BY PAUL WORTHINGTON COPELAND, Architect
H
ISTORY and archaeology shall ever go In ml in hand. .History, comprising the
written records of mankind whether on clay, papyrus, paper; engraved on granite cliffs or scratched on the rock walls of caves, is the major science and archaeology is its humble handmaiden. For archaeology fills in the gaps of the written record with intimate details gleaned from pots and pans; weapons and dress; houses and temples.
The kindred art of architecture is not totally dependent on either history or archaeology for it is a living art indissolubly connected with the very life of the human race and will endure as long as civilization endures. Yet architecture, as we think of it as an artistic expression of the great, underlying human desire for beauty in life, owes a great deal of its science and knowledge of its own nativity to archaeology. While we had ever with us examples of the finest works of the ancients and their presence and precedents had consciously or unconsciously influenced our constructive progress, it was not
until the comparatively recent excavations in Italy, Greece, Asia Minor and the Levant that we acquired a scientific knowledge of earlier construction and an a:sthetic appreciation of architectural development.
The ancient glories of Athens, Rome and Luxor are familiar to us as memories of golden periods of early architectural progress. Yet to the trained mind, there is often as much interest in the rising,
transitional and decadent periods of historic art for they show the struggles and triumphs, the ebb and flow of human endeavor. Such an example lies in the little frequented city of Baalbek in Syria. As the name obviously indicates, it is solely a temple city. In fact, its creation was due to religious zeal, its present ruinous condition due to religious bigotry.
As you leave the Syrian seaport of Beirut, cross the barren mountain range and drive the sixty miles up the broad level valley of the Ba’kah flanked on either side by the snow covered ridges of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, you are gradually taken back through the
centuries to theTemple of Jupiter
(Copyright, 1923, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.)
The ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1923NUMBER 2426
THE TEMPLE CITY of BAALBEK
BY PAUL WORTHINGTON COPELAND, Architect
H
ISTORY and archaeology shall ever go In ml in hand. .History, comprising the
written records of mankind whether on clay, papyrus, paper; engraved on granite cliffs or scratched on the rock walls of caves, is the major science and archaeology is its humble handmaiden. For archaeology fills in the gaps of the written record with intimate details gleaned from pots and pans; weapons and dress; houses and temples.
The kindred art of architecture is not totally dependent on either history or archaeology for it is a living art indissolubly connected with the very life of the human race and will endure as long as civilization endures. Yet architecture, as we think of it as an artistic expression of the great, underlying human desire for beauty in life, owes a great deal of its science and knowledge of its own nativity to archaeology. While we had ever with us examples of the finest works of the ancients and their presence and precedents had consciously or unconsciously influenced our constructive progress, it was not
until the comparatively recent excavations in Italy, Greece, Asia Minor and the Levant that we acquired a scientific knowledge of earlier construction and an a:sthetic appreciation of architectural development.
The ancient glories of Athens, Rome and Luxor are familiar to us as memories of golden periods of early architectural progress. Yet to the trained mind, there is often as much interest in the rising,
transitional and decadent periods of historic art for they show the struggles and triumphs, the ebb and flow of human endeavor. Such an example lies in the little frequented city of Baalbek in Syria. As the name obviously indicates, it is solely a temple city. In fact, its creation was due to religious zeal, its present ruinous condition due to religious bigotry.
As you leave the Syrian seaport of Beirut, cross the barren mountain range and drive the sixty miles up the broad level valley of the Ba’kah flanked on either side by the snow covered ridges of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, you are gradually taken back through the
centuries to theTemple of Jupiter
(Copyright, 1923, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.)