Palace arches
Raised on columns.
Vyacheslav Argenberg — CC BY 4.0 · Vyacheslav Argenberg — CC BY 4.0 · Véronique Dauge — CC BY-SA 3.0 igo · Frank Kidner — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lodo from Moscow, Russia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Arian Zwegers — CC BY 2.0 · Bdx — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Frank Kidner — CC BY-SA 4.0
An Umayyad palace-city in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, attributed to the caliph al-Walid I in the early eighth century; Syriac graffiti in its quarry carry the date 714. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. The city was laid out as a walled rectangle, crossed by two main streets meeting at a four-columned tetrapylon and lined with shops, in the manner of Roman towns. The finest sight is the great palace, its arches raised on columns and its walls of alternating stone and brick courses, alongside the mosque, baths and smaller palaces. The city was not lived in for long and was abandoned not long after it was built. Allow an hour or two; there is little shade in summer. The site is about half an hour's drive from Zahle and combines easily with Baalbek in a day in the Bekaa.
Raised on columns.
Where the streets meet.
Lined with shops.
Anjar, Bekaa Valley
It is attributed to the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I in the early eighth century; Syriac graffiti in its quarry are dated 714.