At an altitude of 1500m in Kfardebian, the historic Faqra site stands amongst interesting looking limestone formations. The ruins are of Roman and Byzantine roots. It was renovated to honor Adonis by roman emperor Claudius in CE 43-44 . The temple of Adonis, the largest structure on the site follows an old Semitic architecture. There is speculation that it may have been built over a Phoenician Canaanite site as is the case for many other Roman ruins in Lebanon. Its actual construction date is not known. Besides the ruins of the Adonis temple, the site includes ruins of a temple for the Goddess Atargatis, a Byzantine church and four altars including the tower of Claudius. Our visit took place in August 2017. My family and I enjoyed learning about its history and walking through the ruins imagining what a grand structure it must have been in the second half of the first century.
References Livius, Lebanon Untraveled, Wikipedia
Temple of Adonis
Byzantine Church
Large Altar
Tower of Claudius
It’s amazing how they built such huge structures without machinery.
I keep thinking about that. There’s a larger site with even taller columns in another town. It’s fascinating