From a photograph by Donald Macbeth of plate xxvi in Robert Wood’s “Ruins of Palmyra,” 1753. The city of Palmyra, traditionally founded by Solomon, at a meeting-point of the Syrian caravan routes, first rose into prominence in the time of Gallienus, when Odenathus, its Saracen prince, was acknowledged by the emperor as “Augustus,” _i.e._ a colleague in the imperial power. After his assassination his widow Zenobia succeeded to his power and ruled magnificently as Queen of the East until she was defeated and made captive by Aurelian. The architectural remains are Corinthian in style, embellished with meaningless oriental ornament 60 BA’ALBEK: THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS 232 Heliopolis or Ba’albek was the centre of a fertile region of Cœle-Syria on the slopes of Anti-Lebanon. It was always a centre of Baal or Sun worship, it was a city of priests and its oracle attracted great renown in the second century A.D. when it was consulted by Trajan. Antoninus Pius built the great Temple of Zeus (Jupiter), one of the wonders of the world. The worship was rather that of Baal than of Zeus, and oriental in character. It included the cult of conical stones such as that brought to Rome by Elagabalus. The architecture is of the most sumptuous Corinthian style, with some oriental modifications 61 BA’ALBEK: THE TEMPLE OF BACCHUS, INTERIOR 234 Here we observe the oriental round arch forming the lowest course. The material of the buildings is white granite with decorations of rough local marble 62 BA’ALBEK: THE TEMPLE OF BACCHUS, EAST PORTICO 236 Observe the rather effective juxtaposition of fluted and unfluted columns 63 BA’ALBEK: THE CIRCULAR TEMPLE, FROM BACK 238 This small circular temple is of a style without parallel in antiquity. The nature of the cult is unknown The last four plates are reproduced by special permission of the Director of the Royal Museum, Berlin, from photographs supplied by the Königlichen Messbildanstalt. They are plates XVII, XXI, XXII, and XXX respectively, in Puchstein and Von Lupke’s “Ba’albek,” published for the German Government by G. Reimer, Berlin 64 (Fig. 1) TIMGAD: THE CAPITOL 240 Timgad (Thamugadi) was founded by Trajan as a Roman colony in A.D. 100. It is on the edge of the Sahara in the ancient province of Numidia. It has recently been explored by the French. The photograph shows the Capitol raised on an artificial terrace. Two of the Corinthian columns have been re-erected (Fig. 2) TIMGAD: THE DECUMANUS MAXIMUS AND TRAJAN’S ARCH A view of the main street, spanned by a triumphal arch in honour of Trajan. The ruts of the carriage-wheels are still visible as at Pompeii. From photographs by Miss K. P. Blair 65 POMPEII: THERMOPOLION, STREET OF ABUNDANCE 242