I have taken photographs of some of the broken columns with myself standing beside them to give an idea of their size. I am five feet eight inches tall and the large columns are fully two feet more in diameter. Some of the wonderful carvings are those which form the frieze above the great pillars two or three hundred feet high up in the air. Among them are the heads of gigantic lions, each head as big as a flour barrel but polished like a fine marble mantel. Through the mouths of these lions emptied the drains of the roof. The beauties of the temples will be preserved from now on. They are under official guard, and tickets which cost a dollar apiece are required of all who go in. I was shown through by Dr. Michel Alouf, an archæologist, who explained just how the temples looked in the past. He showed me where the early Christians had erected a church inside one temple, defacing the carvings and breaking the noses of the beautiful statues. They took pleasure in destroying the work wrought by heathen artists in honour of pagan gods. Next came the Arabs, who used the place as a fort, throwing great round chunks of marble as big as footballs from its sheltering walls. There are piles of these marble balls inside the temple to-day. They were probably cut from the columns. The Arabs made a mosque in the temple. They wiped out every trace of the Christian religion and used a part of the church for a bath. After them came an earthquake, so that the ruins were mostly covered up until the Germans began their excavations. I am stopping here in the little town of Baalbek, which stands right on the edge of the ruins. It has an excellent hotel, and its people are hospitable. Its population of five or six thousand is made up of Mohammedans and Christians. Besides a small garrison of soldiers, there are two Greek Catholic monasteries and several girls’ schools. The children followed us as we walked about through the ruins, selling purses made of Syrian silk into which they had woven a design of the six great columns of the temple. They also asked for _baksheesh_, and the begging palm was everywhere thrust out. I am surprised at the scanty forestation of these mountains of Lebanon. I had expected to find them covered with woods, whereas they are almost treeless. Their lower slopes are well cultivated and some of them are terraced almost to the top. Thousands of acres, made up of little patches, rise step-like one above another, covering the hills for miles and miles. These patches contain mulberry orchards and vineyards. There are also peaches and apples, and in the valleys are rich fields of wheat, barley, and clover. The chief formation is limestone, and though there are rocks everywhere, the soil seems wonderfully rich.