Sightseeing
Baalbek, Lebanon / May 27, 2006
The Stone of the Pregnant Woman (Arabic: Hadjar el Hibla) or Stone of the South is a Roman monolith in Baalbek (ancient Heliopolis), Lebanon.
The Stone of the Pregnant Woman
Together with another ancient stone block nearby, it is among the very largest monoliths ever quarried by men. The two building blocks were intended for the close-by Roman temple complex − possibly as an addition to the so-called trilith − which was characterized by a monolithic gigantism unparalleled in antiquity and beyond.
The Largest Stone in the World
The monolith is named after a pregnant woman who, as local legend has it, tricked the naive people of Baalbek into believing that she knows how to move the giant stone, if only they would feed her until she gives birth
The largest monoliths ever quarried by men
The Roman stone block still lies in the ancient quarry at a distance of 900 m from the Heliopolis temple complex. In 1996, a geodetic team of the Austrian city of Linz conducted topographical measurements at the site which aimed at establishing the exact dimensions of the two monoliths and their possible use in the construction of the gigantic Jupiter temple.
Stone of the South
According to their calculations, the block weighs 1,000.12 t, thus practically confirming older learned estimations such as by the French scholar Jean-Pierre Adam. The established dimensions of the rectangular limestone block are: 20.31–20.76 m length, 4 m width at base, 4.14–5.29 m width at top, 4.21–4.32 m height, 2.6–2.8 g/cm³ density
The largest monolith in the World
Another monoliths nearby
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