Fotos

Bicycle travels on the Silk Route:
The Romans may not always have passed through the Beqaa valley in today's Lebanon when traveling from the Mediterranean to Palmyra, but when they did they wanted to worship in Baalbek for sure. This was a former Phoenician settlement where a temple dedicated to Baal was built in the first millenium BC.. Nowhere else have I seen such massive Roman construction elements like here. What the picture shows are the six remaining columns from a temple of Jupiter. In the background you notice the temple of Bacchus.
The rain clouds building up in the background are dammed up by the "Anti Lebanon", a Northeast Southwest range of mountains. This brings beneficial water into the Beqaa valley but worries a cyclist :-)