Arguably, the largest cut-stone in the World.
The stone of the South
The stone of the South—Hadjar el Gouble, The Stone of the Pregnant Woman—Hadjar el Hibla
Dimensions – There are several varying sources regarding the dimensions of this stone. As such, they have all been compiled in the following:
69 ft long, 16 ft wide and 10 ft high = 11040 ft³ or 20.9m x 4.8m x 3m = 300 m³.
Estimated weight – 1,500 (1) – 2,000 Tons.
The same is true of the three foundation blocks ‘The
Trilithon‘, in the nearby Baalbek temple, which have the following dimensions: The largest is 65 feet in length, the second 64 ft 10 inches; and the third 63ft 2 inches. They are all 14 ft and 6 inches in height, and 12 feet in thickness. Each block is therefore 350 cubic yards and they are estimated to weigh 750 – 1,000 tons each (1).
How was the stone moved – The ancient manipulation of such large stones is still a largely debated phenomena. Common to other similar ancient construction feats, there are no records to testify the means or date of this extraordinary achievement. However, the similarity to other extremely early middle-eastern masonry achievements, such as those seen at Giza or Abydos, in Egypt and the foundations of the ‘Temple of the mount’ in Jerusalem, have not gone un-noticed. Likewise, there appears to be a connection in the type of stone used, which was invariably quartzite (Red granite in the case of Baalbek).
In the past such achievements were accredited to ‘The hand of God’, ‘Giants’ and more recently ‘Alien life’. However, we must be careful not to lose ourselves in disbelief. There is no doubt that these stones were moved, and as with most such unexplainable events, there is likely to be a rational answer if we look for it. For example, the Colossi of Memnon, in Egypt are both estimated to weigh 1000 tons each, and their movement is clearly depicted in hieroglyphs.
Why was the stone moved – Just as important as understanding how they were moved, is the question of why such immense stones were moved. (Any increase in advantage gained by using large stones is balanced against the increased difficulties of moving them). In Egypt, for example, we can see numerous 85-ton stones that were moved over 500 km to their resting places in and around the great pyramid.
The foundation stones for the Ba’albek temple were moved
uphill to their resting place.
The proximity of the quarry to the temple is close enough that it could be argued that the stones did not
need to be moved, at least in terms of laying a foundation, as it would have been more effective to build the temple directly into the bedrock. This raises the question, why bother at all?
While large stones are clearly structurally advantageous to a temple foundation, the extra-ordinary size of these suggest that another factor may have been involved in this choice of design.
The idea that the temple was solar reasonably justifies the moving of the stones uphill, as placing the temple on top of the hill enabled it to capture the rays of the sun at the appropriate times of the year (the equinoxes). The choice of such large stones however, as with many ancient structures, might be better explained through the idea of a form of worship of the
stone itself.
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