The Megalithic Baalbek Temple; An Ancient ‘Landing Place?’
When one considers the mysteries of ancient megalithic ruins, famous sites such as Stonehenge, Palenque, and Göbekli Tepe come to mind, though less often are the temple grounds of Baalbek mentioned in the same breath. There, perched 3,000 feet atop a sacred hill in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, lay the ruins of one of the world’s most massive megalithic sites, containing some of the heaviest quarried stones of antiquity. Still, little is understood of its construction.
Baalbek is located in the northeast of Lebanon, about 60 miles outside of Beirut, making it a difficult place to travel these days. But during the time of Roman imperialism, it was known as Heliopolis, the “City of the Sun,” founded by Alexander the Great in 334 BC. Baalbek became the site of Roman temples dedicated to Jupiter, Bacchus, and Venus, based on a popular cult devoted to this famous triumvirate.
Though the foundational stones and the location in which they were quarried have been known for some time, the site’s biggest megalith was discovered just recently. Weighing in at a whopping 1,620 tons, it outweighs another mysteriously gargantuan monolith from the same quarry, known as the Pregnant Mother Stone, by 400 tons.
The remains of the Roman temple rest on a stack of three, 900-ton megaliths known as the trilithon. Moving the trilithon into place today would require the effort of some of the world’s most powerful cranes, yet in the time of its alleged construction, the stones were somehow situated through primitive means so precisely, that one has difficulty slipping a sheet of paper between them today.
To put the sheer weight of these stones into perspective, one might compare them to the stones used to construct Stonehenge, which weighs in at around 25 tons each – a fraction of the trilithon stones’ weight.
Researchers including Graham Hancock, find this difficult to comprehend, leading him to believe in the possibility that an antediluvian, or pre-flood, civilization with advanced technology may have been responsible for the trilithon, upon which the Romans later constructed their temple. In fact, Hancock says he believes the trilithon maybe 12,000 or more years old, predating Roman construction by around 10,000 years.
The site remained a sacred place for a number of cultures and religions throughout its history and is believed, even by mainstream archeologists, to have been inhabited for the past 8-9,000 years. After the fall of the Roman Empire, it became a site of importance for Pagans, Christians, and later Muslims when the Ottoman Empire controlled the region.
The Pregnant Mother Stone at Baalbek
Baalbek Aliens
Due to the baffling size and masonry of the stonework at Baalbek, the site has sparked theories among proponents of the ancient astronaut theory due to interpretations of ancient Sumerian texts which referred to Baalbek as “the landing place.”
Some believe the area may be located within specific geomagnetic energy fields, where resonant electromagnetic energy was harnessed to erect the structure. Advocates of these theories, including Freddy Silva propose the possibility that Baalbek may be situated along a special energetic field due to quartz contained beneath the Earth’s surface. The quartz in the area may have worked in conjunction with the massive stones at the quarry alleged to contain piezoelectric properties, possibly aiding in the erection of the Baalbek monoliths.
Others believe it was simply constructed by an ancient civilization with advanced technology. In fact, mainstream archeology doesn’t necessarily agree that the trilithon was constructed by the Romans, but potentially some prior civilization. And if this was the case, who were these people able to move such monoliths, before the engineering brilliance of the Roman empire?
For more info on some of the world’s most confounding megaliths watch this episode of Beyond the Legend with Erich Von Däniken:
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Evidence of Seven Levels Beneath the Giza Plateau
Five miles from Cairo stands one of the most ancient and alluring sites in human history. This mystery comprises the three main pyramids of Giza that have come to represent one of the most famous ancient civilizations. The megalithic stones that form these structures lie on a great plateau, and now investigators have found something else fascinating that lies below the pyramids.
Gregg Braden explains that some of the earliest credible accounts of the Giza Plateau come from the Greek historian and geographer Herodotus, who, in the early 400s B.C.E, compiled a reference book on ancient civilizations, cultures, and technologies predating his time by thousands of years.
Prior to Herodotus, no one had presented a systematic, thorough study of the past, attempting to link events with how they shaped history. Herodotus speculated there were hidden passages beneath the pyramids, as well as chambers, pathways, and great spaces — all of which were created when the climate and topography of Egypt were very different than it is today. Herodotus felt that beneath the pyramids lay the remnants of other ancient civilizations.
If Herodotus was correct, the pyramids may be sitting upon the most amazing time capsule in history, revealing not only long-lost cultures but also their technologies and origins saved in the earliest of writings and images.
Two researchers stand out in the search to uncover the underground spaces beneath the pyramids: British Consul General Henry Salt and his hired explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni. These men were able to survey the area with the limited technology of their time in the early 1800s and were led by the desert topography to an area at the edge of the Giza Plateau, now an archaeological find of its own called The Tomb of the Birds.
