https://www.academia.edu/164548280/The_B...S9z7nrS4vQ
By this fellow: https://www.marcovigato.com/
Haven' read it yet but he put out this blurb:
Baalbek was among the greatest sanctuaries of antiquity. It housed the largest temples of the Roman world, dedicated to Jupiter and Bacchus, and stood on a monumental stone platform built with some of the largest blocks ever moved by human hands—some weighing over 1,000 tons.
Conventional scholarship attributes both the temples and their colossal megalithic foundations entirely to Roman builders. Others—most notably Graham Hancock—have long questioned this view, proposing instead that the Romans inherited and monumentalized a much older megalithic structure.
This paper revisits that debate by reexamining long-standing architectural anomalies in light of the latest archaeological research, particularly the work of Daniel Lohmann and Klaus Rheidt.
At the heart of the discussion lies a critical question:
what is the relationship between Podium I—the massive platform supporting the Temple of Jupiter, itself a colossal megalithic structure built with blocks up to 11 m long and weighing over 50 tons—and Podium II, as Lohmann defines the outer megalithic enclosure that surrounds it on three sides, comprising the famous Trilithon, three stones weighing between 800 and 1,000 tons each?
Our study argues that—contrary to both mainstream and alternative models—Podium I and Podium II were conceived and built synchronously as part of a single, coherent construction project. Podium II was not an unfinished expansion, but an integral element of an original, enormous T-shaped platform, likely supporting an Egyptian-style temple.
Among the key points explored in the paper:
• Epigraphic evidence suggests that Baalbek was already a major sanctuary dedicated to the Semitic god El by at least the 3rd millennium BCE.
• The sanctuary’s anomalous orientation (≈12° west of true north) mirrors that of the earliest structures on the tell, dating to the Early Bronze Age, and is shared by numerous other megalithic structures in the Near East, notably Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
• Construction anomalies around the temple stairway and Great Court suggest that parts of the megalithic enclosure may extend beneath Roman-period surfaces.
• Baalbek may have been the center of an ancient meteoritic cult, drawing intriguing parallels with the Egyptian Heliopolis.
• A geodetic correlation between Giza, Heliopolis, and Baalbek implies long-distance surveying capabilities far beyond what is usually attributed to historic civilizations; corrections for continental drift suggest that such such a survey could date back 10,000 years or more.
Taken together, these observations indicate that the core megalithic substructures of Baalbek were already in place by at least the late Hellenistic period—and possibly much earlier.
The paper also addresses the largely unexplored deep foundations beneath the Temple of Jupiter, and outlines future research directions, including non-invasive geophysical surveys (GPR, ERT) and targeted deep excavations along the megalithic podium.
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By this fellow: https://www.marcovigato.com/
Haven' read it yet but he put out this blurb:
Baalbek was among the greatest sanctuaries of antiquity. It housed the largest temples of the Roman world, dedicated to Jupiter and Bacchus, and stood on a monumental stone platform built with some of the largest blocks ever moved by human hands—some weighing over 1,000 tons.
Conventional scholarship attributes both the temples and their colossal megalithic foundations entirely to Roman builders. Others—most notably Graham Hancock—have long questioned this view, proposing instead that the Romans inherited and monumentalized a much older megalithic structure.
This paper revisits that debate by reexamining long-standing architectural anomalies in light of the latest archaeological research, particularly the work of Daniel Lohmann and Klaus Rheidt.
At the heart of the discussion lies a critical question:
what is the relationship between Podium I—the massive platform supporting the Temple of Jupiter, itself a colossal megalithic structure built with blocks up to 11 m long and weighing over 50 tons—and Podium II, as Lohmann defines the outer megalithic enclosure that surrounds it on three sides, comprising the famous Trilithon, three stones weighing between 800 and 1,000 tons each?
Our study argues that—contrary to both mainstream and alternative models—Podium I and Podium II were conceived and built synchronously as part of a single, coherent construction project. Podium II was not an unfinished expansion, but an integral element of an original, enormous T-shaped platform, likely supporting an Egyptian-style temple.
Among the key points explored in the paper:
• Epigraphic evidence suggests that Baalbek was already a major sanctuary dedicated to the Semitic god El by at least the 3rd millennium BCE.
• The sanctuary’s anomalous orientation (≈12° west of true north) mirrors that of the earliest structures on the tell, dating to the Early Bronze Age, and is shared by numerous other megalithic structures in the Near East, notably Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
• Construction anomalies around the temple stairway and Great Court suggest that parts of the megalithic enclosure may extend beneath Roman-period surfaces.
• Baalbek may have been the center of an ancient meteoritic cult, drawing intriguing parallels with the Egyptian Heliopolis.
• A geodetic correlation between Giza, Heliopolis, and Baalbek implies long-distance surveying capabilities far beyond what is usually attributed to historic civilizations; corrections for continental drift suggest that such such a survey could date back 10,000 years or more.
Taken together, these observations indicate that the core megalithic substructures of Baalbek were already in place by at least the late Hellenistic period—and possibly much earlier.
The paper also addresses the largely unexplored deep foundations beneath the Temple of Jupiter, and outlines future research directions, including non-invasive geophysical surveys (GPR, ERT) and targeted deep excavations along the megalithic podium.
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