The Great Temple of Jupiter located in Faqra dates from Roman times. It has several unique features including that of the highest Roman temple ever built, standing at an altitude of approximately 1,500 meters. This sanctuary is also partially built using the natural reliefs of rocks that border it.

This Roman temple is 75 by 35 meters, from east to west for its outer wall. Built around the 1st century AD, it is a temple whose facade has several Corinthian style columns unfortunately restored with concrete as in Machnaqa.

Inside, 2 parts, a square courtyard whose slabs can still be seen and a prostyle carved in local stone.

Certain inscriptions found inside this sanctuary attributed it to the cult of Jupiter of Heliopolis. These builders would also be the same for the 2 sanctuaries dedicated to Jupiter.
The via romana which then went from Baalbeck to Berytus, Beirut today passed near these places. Not far from there, there is also a guard tower whose role was probably used to protect travelers from looters.

Other inscriptions found inside the temple attributed it to the Cult of Adonis, very well known in Lebanon. Indeed, it is not far from there, in Afqa, that the lover of Aphrodite among the Greeks or Venus among the Romans would have died during a hunting trip, after the charge of a boar.

Next to this temple is another structure consisting of an even older temple, probably dating back to Phoenician times – this is the place of worship attributed to the Phoenician goddess Atargatis and a proto-Byzantine church, which overlooks one of the streams of the Nahr Kalb River.

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Not far from there, the ski resort of Kfardebian


Getting there

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