View source for Place:Iaat

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'''Iaat''' ({{lang-ar|ايعات}} also transliterated as '''Ya'ad''', '''Yaad''', '''Yaat''', or '''Iaad''') is a town and municipality located approximately 5 kilometers northwest of [[Place:Baalbek|Baalbek]], in the Beqaa Valley of [[Place:Lebanon|Lebanon]]. The town is famed for its Corinthian column, the '''Iaat column'''. This is a single column of unknown date (but probably dated from Roman times), approximately halfway between Baalbek and [[Place:Qasr el Banat, Lebanon|Qasr el Banat]], with a cartouche on the 6th drum but no inscription.

==History==
Ottoman tax registers between 1533 and 1548 indicate the village had 180 households and 4 bachelors, all Muslims.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Khalife |first1=Issam |title=The Districts of Lebanon in The 16th Century |date=2004 |page=126 |url=https://archive.org/details/20200107_20200107_1108/page/n125/ |language=Arabic}}</ref>

In 1838, Eli Smith noted  ''Ei'at''  as a Metawileh village in the Baalbek District.<ref>Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/145/mode/1up 145]</ref> The town also has a Christian minority.

==Iaat column==
The column stands 18 meters<ref>[http://www.lebanon.com/tourism/iaat.htm Iaat],  Lebanon.Com</ref> (59.1&nbsp;feet) and is installed on a four-step base.  The location of the Pillar is 4 miles (6&nbsp;km) northwest of the Baalbek ruins, between the towns of [[Place:Baalbek|Baalbek]] and Chlifa.  At one point, a [[Social:Commemorative plaque|plaque]] was installed on the northern side of the monument. However, it has been removed and no other history is known of the column.  The column is believed in local legend to be related to Helena, mother of Constantine I.<ref name="Verlag1999">{{cite book|author=Nelles Verlag|title=Syria Lebanon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MCTszTdofMkC|access-date=2 November 2012|date=1 December 1999|publisher=Hunter Publishing, Inc|isbn=978-3-88618-105-6}}</ref><ref name="KrenckerZschietzschmann1938">{{cite book|author1=Daniel Krencker|author2=Willy Zschietzschmann|title=Römische Tempel in Syrien|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DR1IAQAAIAAJ|access-date=2 November 2012|year=1938|publisher=W. de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-004989-3}}</ref>

The British scholar George F. Taylor classified it among a group of temples of the Beqaa Valley and noticed that the position of the Iaat column was equidistant between the temples of [[Place:Baalbek|Baalbek]] and [[Place:Qasr el Banat, Lebanon|Qasr el Banat]]. Whilst technically not being a temple, Taylor suggested that the column might have been placed by the Romans where it is as a victory column to mark the site of a great ancient battle. He also noted a cartouche on the sixth cylinder of the column.<ref name="Taylor1967">{{cite book|author=Taylor, G.F.|title=The Roman temples of Lebanon: a pictorial guide|url=https://archive.org/details/romantemplesofle0000tayl|url-access=registration|access-date=2 November 2012|year=1967|publisher=Dar el-Machreq Publishers}}</ref>

==See also==
*Heliopolis in Phoenicia
*[[Place:Qasr el Banat, Lebanon|Qasr el Banat]]
*Roman Phoenicia

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=E.|last2=Smith|first2=E.|author-link2=Eli Smith|year=1841|url=https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft |title=Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838|  location=Boston|publisher=Crocker & Brewster|volume=3}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
*[http://www.localiban.org/article4027.html Iaat at localiban.org] 
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070824015916/http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/lebanon/Mouhafazat/Beqaa/Caza/Baalbeck/iaat.htm Iaat at cartage.org.lb] (archived link)
*[http://middleeast.com/iaat.htm Iaat at middleeast.com]

{{Archaeological sites in Lebanon}}

[[Category:Archaeological sites in Lebanon]]

{{Sourceattribution|Iaat}}