The Temple of Bacchus — once wrongly credited to Jupiter — may have been completed under Septimius Severus in the 190s , as his coins are the first to show it beside the Temple of Jupiter . It is the best preserved of the sanctuary 's structures , as the other rubble from its ruins protected it . It is enriched by some of the most refined reliefs and sculpture to survive from antiquity . The temple is surrounded by forty-two columns — 8 along each end and 15 along each side — nearly in height . These were probably erected in a rough state and then rounded , polished , and decorated in position . The entrance was preserved as late as Pococke and Wood , but the keystone of the lintel had slid following the 1759 earthquakes ; a column of rough masonry was erected in the 1860s or '70s to support it . The 1759 earthquakes also damaged the area around the soffit 's famed inscription of an eagle , which was entirely covered by the keystone 's supporting column.The area around the inscription of the eagle was greatly damaged by the 1759 earthquake . The interior of the temple is divided into a nave and a adytum or sanctuary on a platform raised above it and fronted by 13 steps . The screen between the two sections once held reliefs of Neptune , Triton , Arion and his dolphin , and other marine figures but these have been lost . The temple was used as a kind of donjon for the medieval Arab and Turkish fortifications , although its eastern steps were lost sometime after 1688 . Much of the portico was incorporated into a huge wall directly before its gate , but this was demolished in July 1870 by Barker on orders from Syria 's governor Rashid Pasha . Two spiral staircases in columns on either side of the entrance lead to the roof
1759 earthquake
Near East earthquakes of 1759
Baalbek