Templum Beli, Palmyra
About
Dedicated 32 CE to the Palmyrene god Bel; the largest religious complex of the caravan city. Its cella stood until 2015. Standing and in active cult use in 117 CE.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
In ancient writing
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 5.88
Palmyra set apart by its soil and its water in a great circuit of sand, and by a position that leaves it courted by Rome and Parthia both.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →