Baalbec, General View

From Sidon it took Roberts and his party four days to reach Baalbec, which they did - in a violent rainstorm - on the 2nd of May 1839. Despite a poor first night, during which his tent was drenched through, causing him to catch a fever that made him 'suffer greatly', his excitement at being amongst the spectacular Roman ruins is palpable from his journal entries. He wrote: ‘such was my delight and wonder at the stateliness of the Temple [perhaps the Temple of Bacchus], that I could not resist visiting and examining every portion of it, until I became totally exhausted…. I feel that it must be difficult to convey, even with the pencil, any idea of the magnificence of this ruin, the beauty of its form, the exquisite richness of its ornament and the vast magnitude of its dimensions are altogether unparalleled.’

This lithograph shows - from the left to right - the temples of Jupiter, Bacchus, Venus and Mercury, as well as the snow-capped mountains of Lebanon beyond. In the foreground men smoke long pipes, while - between them and the ruins - a camp, possibly Roberts’s, can be seen.