BAALBEK LEBANON: RECENT EXCAVATIONS REVEAL CUT 1650 TON STONE BLOCK

In the summer of 2014 the Oriental Department of the German Archaeological Institute conducted excavations in the stone quarry of Baalbek/Ancient Heliopolis, in Lebanon. There lies the famous monolith “Hajjar al-Hibla” (Stone of the Pregnant Woman.) Similar stone blocks of a 20m length were used for the podium of the huge Temple of Jupiter in the Roman sanctuary of Baalbek.