Baalbek, Lebanon. The journey begins at the legendary Palmyra Hotel, opened in 1874, whose faded salons welcomed Kaiser Wilhelm II, Jean Cocteau, Charles de Gaulle and Fairuz, and which kept its doors open through wars. Just across the road, the ruins of ancient Heliopolis rise above the Bekaa Valley: the vast temples of Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus, among the best-preserved Roman monuments in the world. At the southern entrance of the city, the shrine of Sayyida Khawla, little daughter of Imam Husayn according to tradition, draws Shia pilgrims who come to pray around her ornate tomb. Columns, carved stones and devotion, between past grandeur and present-day life.
