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Baalbek - City Of The Sun

Also spelled Baalbek, Baalbak and Baalabak, and in ancient times known as Heliopolis (the city of the sun), Baalbek is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the most significant tourism sites in Lebanon, 85km north-east of Beirut. It is the site of one of the most magnificent and best preserved Roman temples in the world.

The Destination Lebanon website elaborates:

Baalbek entered its golden age in 47 BC, when Julius Caesar made it a Roman colony. Perhaps because of the area's agricultural importance in feeding the eastern inhabitants of the Roman Empire-or perhaps because of its strategic location along the major east-west and north-south trading routes-the Romans selected this site to construct the largest religious temples in their empire. Over a span of 200 years (60 BC - 150 AD), a succession of Roman emperors oversaw the construction of the magnificent temples to honor the divine Roman trinity: Jupiter, Venus and Mercury. These temples also served as a monument to the wealth and power of Imperial Rome.

Similarly, the World Heritage Review #14 describes Baalbek:

Built of stone blocks weighing up to a hundred tons transported to the site by muscular force alone, the temples of Baalbek have survived majestically to the present day. In the fifth century, historians listed them among the 'wonders of the world', referring to them, for the first time, as 'the temples of Baalbek' - the name by which they are still known today.

Archaeologists through the last century have extensively excavated and restored Baalbek and a new museum opened in 1998.

Denis visited Baalbek on leave 27 May 1942