Dale Pollard
Across the ancient Levant you’d find some of the largest stone structures ever assembled. It boggles the mind to think these were built at a time before cranes or diesel engines. Even with their help, some of the stones used in and around Baalbek— still couldn’t be moved.
If the ancient builders quarried, transported, and precisely positioned stones weighing hundreds of tons, the only logical conclusion is that giants must have done it. Or at least, some of these places.
The Bible mentions that parts of Canaan were inhabited by some big boys.
“The Emim… were a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim” (Deuteronomy 2:10).
“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim… his bedstead was of iron… nine cubits was its length” (Deuteronomy 3:11).
The spies sent by Moses also reported seeing the Anakim:
“We saw the Nephilim… and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers” (Numbers 13:33).
Baalbek
At Baalbek, the famous Trilithon consists of three limestone blocks weighing roughly 800 tons each. Nearby lie even larger stones, including one estimated to exceed 1,000 tons. These remain among the largest stones ever quarried by any ancient civilization— ever.
Big stones in an area known for big people? Well— mystery solved!
The Jewish historian Josephus referred to the descendants of the Anakim as a race of giants whose bones could still be seen in his day (Antiquities 5.2.3).
The Phoenician historian Philo of Byblos, whose writings survive through Eusebius, preserved traditions about beings of extraordinary size and strength building the very earliest monuments.
In fact, it was the Greeks who even coined the term “Cyclopean masonry” because they believed that only the giant Cyclopes could have constructed walls made from enormous, tightly fitted stones, like those found at Mycenae and Tiryns.
Can we say for certain which Canaanite fortifications were built by giants? Not entirely. But based on the evidence one could make some pretty good guesses. Giants probably built the biggest ones.
Sources
• Antiquities of the Jews 5.2.3.
• Fragments of Philo of Byblos in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica.
• UNESCO documentation on Baalbek.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece (on Cyclopean masonry traditions)
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