The Tell Baalbek temple complex , fortified as the town 's citadel during the Middle Ages , was constructed from local stone , mostly white granite and a rough white marble . Over the years , it has suffered from the region 's numerous earthquakes , the iconoclasm of Christian and Muslim lords , and the reuse of the temples ' stone for fortification and other construction . The nearby Qubbat Duris , a 13th-century Muslim shrine on the old road to Damascus , is built out of granite columns , apparently removed from Baalbek . Further , the jointed columns were once banded together with iron ; many were gouged open or toppled by the emirs of Damascus to get at the metal . As late as the 16th century , the Temple of Jupiter still held 27 standing columns out of an original 58 ; there were only nine before the 1759 earthquakes and six today
1759 earthquakes
Near East earthquakes of 1759
Baalbek