Arabic Baʿlabakk, Greek Heliopolis, also called City of the Sun, is a large archaeological complex encompassing the ruins of an ancient Roman town in eastern Lebanon.
Nothing is known of Baalbeck prior to the Greek conquest of Syria (332 BCE). After the death of Alexander the Great (323), the region fell to the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, under which the town was called Heliopolis, probably for its Egyptian namesake. In 200 it was conquered by the Seleucid Antiochus III (the Great) and remained a Seleucid possession until the fall of that dynasty (64 BCE), at which time it came under Roman control. Several decades later it was made a Roman colony and was settled by a legion.
Baalbeck passed into Byzantine hands and then came under Arab domination (637 CE). From then until the 20th century, it was administered by the various Muslim rulers of Syria. After World War I the French mandatory authorities included Baalbeck in Lebanon.
It is located in the broad Al-Biqāʿ (Bekaa Valley) region, at an elevation of roughly 3,700 feet (1,130 metres) about 50 miles (80 km) east-northeast of Beirut. The complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984.
