Circular Temple at Palmyra

Temple of Venus
an architectural gem
Baalbek, Syria

Temple of Venus
The temple of Venus was built in the third century. It has a highly original design: built on a horseshoe-shaped platform, it consists of a circular shrine with a square entrance that is almost as big. The outer facade of the shrine is graced by five niches, which means that there is not a single square wall. In the niches are representations of doves and shells, which has been taken as evidence that the shrine was dedicated to Venus.

The temple was later used as a church, dedicated to Saint Barbara. According to the (comparatively late) Christian legend, she was the daughter of a Heliopolitan dignitary, Dioscorus, who still worshipped the old gods. When he learned that she had been baptized, he killed Barbara and was immediately struck by lightning. Up til the present day, Saint Barbara is invoked if people want to be protected against lightning, and it is possible that this is in fact a continuation of the ancient cult of Hadad.
Because the monument continued to be in use, the temple of Venus is comparatively well-preserved. The Cult has continued on almost the same site, because there's still a small mosque next to the temple of Venus. The Greek-Orthodox church of Baalbek, which is close by, is still dedicated to Saint Barbara.

I suspect the original drawing for this engraving is by Giovanni Battista Borra.  (Scroll down to the Palmyra Ho! section)

A Félix Bonfils photo of the Temple taken in the 1870s.