File:Temple And Crane.jpg

English: The Temple of Bacchus stands in Beirut, Lebanon, and it was built in that spot prior to the establishment of the Temple to Jupiter that was built in the same area. In 151 AD the "Gold Age of Building" for this temple had begun. Julius Caesar began building the Great Temple of Jupiter at this time. In the three centuries to follow the area would be filled with some of the "most monumental religious buildings that were ever constructed in the far reaching Roman Empire.” The buildings would function as places of worship until 313 AD when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Emperor Theodosius would later deface and disfigure many of significant buildings and statues that graced the area, in the 4th Century AD. After destroying these buildings he would construct a basilica with the stones of the Temple of Jupiter, which now is considered a symbol for the end of the reign of "city of the sun [that] declined and lapsed into relative oblivion" Source:http://sacredsites.com/middle_east/lebanon/baalbek.html