Saturday, September 13, 2008
The Mystery of the Stones at Baalbek
The mysterious ruins of Baalbek. One of the great Power Places of the ancient world. For thousands of years its secrets have been shrouded in darkness, or bathed in an artificial light by those who would offer us a simplistic solution to its mysteries.
You are looking at the columns of the Temple of Jupiter - the grandest temple that the Romans ever built - one of the wonders of the ancient world. To this remote location in the Bekaa Valley of modern-day Lebanon, Roman emperors would travel 1,500 miles to make offerings to their gods and receive oracles on the destiny of their empire.
Much has changed in two thousand years. The magnificent temple is ruined, its gods abandoned, its secrets forgotten. Even the ruins have been neglected, wiped off the tourist map by twenty years of terrorism, war, hostages and hijackings.
Some archaeologists might well wish that Baalbek had been buried forever. For it is here that we find the largest dressed stone block in the world - the infamous Stone of the South, lying in its quarry just ten minutes walk from the temple acropolis. This huge stone weighs approximately 1,000 tons - almost as heavy as three Boeing 747 aircraft.[1]
Back at the temple acropolis, three stones not much smaller than this, weighing 800 tons each, have been miraculously fitted together in a wall, forming a Trilithon at a height of 20 feet.
I personally seized the opportunity to visit Baalbek in May 1995, shortly after tourists began returning to the bombed-out ruins of Lebanon. This e-tour will mirror my real life tour, which climaxed at the mighty Trilithon and the Stone of the South. In due course I will attempt to provide some personal insights into the enormous scale of this construction and the motivations of its builders.
First, however, I offer you the rare opportunity to see the entire Baalbek, of which the mighty Trilithon is only a part. As we progress through our e-tour, reflect on the glorious splendour that was once here and ask yourself "why here?". What was it that caused the original sanctity of this remote site? What was it that prompted the Romans to quarry, move and erect literally millions of stone blocks?
We begin at the main acropolis by considering first this bird's eye view of how it might have looked in Roman times, before its fortification by the Muslims. A monumental staircase leads up to the entrance or Propylaea, beyond which we find the Hexagonal Courtyard, the Great Courtyard, the Temple of Jupiter, the smaller Temple of Bacchus, and the much smaller Temple of Venus. Note the unusual fact that the acropolis of Baalbek is not aligned to the cardinal points of the compass.
The Temple of Venus can be dealt with briefly. Situated in what is now a field of rubble, its former elegance can no longer be seen, and only four of its ten columns remain standing. Being outside the fortified acropolis, this temple was swallowed up by an Arab town, to such an extent that the German Archaeological Mission had to remove five metres of debris to clear the first step of the monumental staircase at its entrance. The remains of the temple were dismantled and re-erected in the early 1930s, but they now threaten to collapse again.
We now enter the main acropolis via the Propylaea - what we see here is a reconstruction by the German archaeological expedition in 1905. The original staircase was destroyed by the Arabs to fortify the site and they dismantled the 12 granite columns which they re-used for defensive purposes. Only the bases of those columns survived, and they bore inscriptions identifying their Roman origin.
Having come through the entrance, we find ourselves in the middle of the impressive Hexagonal Courtyard, which is a unique feature for a temple of this period (it may well have been a concession by the Romans to local customs and traditions). Roman inscriptions are found here in abundance, but the purpose of the Hexagonal Courtyard remains unknown.
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Baalbeck (Baalbek)
Introduction
Baalbeck is a city in eastern Lebanon famous chiefly for its magnificent, excellently preserved Roman temple ruins. It was a flourishing Phoenician town when
the Greeks occupied it in 331 B.C. They renamed it "Heliopolis" (City of the Sun) .
It became a Roman colony under the Emperor Augustus in 16 B.C..On its acropolis, over the course of the next three centuries, the Romans constructed a monumental ensemble of three temples, three coutyards, and an enclosing wall built of some of the most gigantic stones ever crafted by man. Some tourists believe that the construction can only be attributed to extra-terrestial artwork .
At the southern entrance of Baalbeck is a quarry where the stones used in the temples were cut. A huge block, considered the largest hewn stone in the world, still sits where it was cut almost 2,000 years ago. Called the "Stone of the Pregnant Woman", it is 21.5m x 4.8m x 4.2meters in size and weighs an estimated 1,000 tons.
TIPS CARA MELIHAT AURA
Ada beberapa hal penting yang berkaitan dengan aura :
Aura manusia selalu berubah-ubah sesuai dengan kedewasaan kepribadian seseorang.
Aura manusia berwarna-warni sesuai dengan kepribadian dan kehidupan seseorang. Masing-masing warna aura menunjukkan kepribadian yang berbeda.
Panjang pendeknya aura dapat dideteksi dengan indra peraba kulit maupun dengan tongkat deteksi.
Aura seseorang dapat mempengaruhi maupun dapat dipengaruhi oleh lingkungan sehingga dapat bertambah maupun dapat berkurang karena faktor lingkungan.
Ada beberapa hal yang dapat dilakukan agar pancaran aura tetap cemerlang, diantaranya :
Makan makanan yang halal, baik dan tidak berlebihan.
Olahraga yang cukup dan teratur.
Memenuhi kebutuhan tubuh akan udara segar.
Istirahat dengan cukup, mengurangi rokok, alkohol dan obat terlarang.
Mengurangi gerak hati, gerak pikir dan kegiatan-kegiatan yang buruk.
Mengurangi sikap hati yang kasar, mudah emosi dan memperbanyak rasa kasih sayang.
Sekarang, mari kita mulai latihan melihat aura. Sebelum melihat aura orang lain, ada beberapa urutan latihan yang harus dilakukan demi kesempurnaan hasil.
1. Melihat Aura Dengan Jari Tangan
Carilah tembok yang berwarna putih, lalu duduklah dengan tenang pada jarak 1/2 meter dari tembok. Ambil nafas sebanyak mungkin dan tahan selama mungkin. Lakukan sebanyak 5 kali. Gosoklah kedua telapak tangan hingga terasa hangat. Tempelkanlah masing-masing jari tangan kanan dan kiri saling berpasangan. Letakkanlah kedua tangan yang masih berpasangan tadi 30 cm didepan mata dengan latar belakang tembok berwarna putih. Renggangkanlah perlahan-lahan kedua telapak tangan saling menjauh. Perhatikanlah, antara kedua ujung jari tadi akan mengeluarkan garis cahaya putih. Itulah aura yang memancar dari ujung jari kita.
2. Melihat Aura Dengan Telapak Tangan
Tariklah nafas dan gosokkanlah kedua telapak tangan seperti pada cara No. 1. Tempelkanlah salah satu telapak tangan pada tembok yang berwarna putih. Tariklah nafas, tahan dan hembuskanlah. Lepaskan telapak tangan dari tembok. Amatilah bekas telapak tangan yang tertinggal ditembok. Itulah aura yang memancar dari telapak tangan dan lama kelamaan akan larut dalam aura alam.
3. Melihat Aura Diri Sendiri
Letakkanlah cermin besar dihadapan kita. Duduklah dengan tenang. Usahakanlah latar belakang tembok berwarna putih dan penerangan berupa lampu neon. Tariklah nafas sebanyak mungkin dan tahanlah selama mungkin. Ulangilah sebanyak 5 kali. Tataplah bayangan diri kita yang ada dicermin. Pandangan mata diusahakan tidak melihat tubuh maupun bayangan tubuh, namun lihatlah batas tepian kepala dengan latar belakang tembok. Setelah pandangan mata kita terfokus, maka perlahan-lahan dari kepala dan bahu akan keluar cahaya aura kita. Sinar yang pertama kali terlihat, biasanya berwarna putih. Putih ini biasanya bukan merupakan warna aura kita yang sesungguhnya, melainkan dari warna aura yang sesungguhnya. Tataplah terus sampai kita melihat warna lain yang tidak berubah. Setelah berhasil, mulailah untuk melihat aura orang lain.
4. Melihat Aura Orang Lain
Mintalah bantuan seseorang yang akan menjadi objek untuk berdiri didepan tembok yang berwarna putih. Usahakanlah penerangan didalam ruangan dibuat remang-remang atau redup. Berdirilah lebih kurang 3 meter didepan objek. Fokuskanlah pandangan mata pada bagian tepi kepala dan bahu objek. Perlahan-lahan akan keluar sinar aura dari tepi kepala objek. Fokuskanlah pandangan pada seluruh tepian tubuh objek, maka seluruh tubuh objek akan memancarkan warna aura.
