Baalbek means ‘God (Baal) of the Beqaa’, and refers to the fertile Beqaa plain. As Hélène Sader, a doctor in archaeology and professor at the American University of Beirut explains ‘The fact that the name of that locality is not mentioned in Assyrian and Egyptian records proves it was not considered important. In the Seleucid (323-64 BC) and Roman (64 BC-312 AD) periods, the town was known as Heliopolis, the City of the Sun.