The Stone of the Pregnant Woman (Arabic: Hadjar el Hibla) or Stone of the South is a Roman monolith in Baalbek (ancient Heliopolis), Lebanon. Together with another ancient stone block nearby, it is among the very largest monoliths ever quarried by men. The two building blocks were intended for the close-by Roman temple complex − possibly as an addition to the so-called trilith − which was characterized by a monolithic gigantism unparalled in antiquity and beyond.
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The monolith is named after a pregnant woman who, as local legend has it, tricked the naive people of Baalbek into believing that she knows how to move the giant stone, if only they would feed her until she gives birth.[1]
The Roman stone block still lies in the ancient quarry at a distance of 900 m from the Heliopolis temple complex.[2] In 1996, a geodetic team of the Austrian city of Linz conducted topographical measurements at the site which aimed at establishing the exact dimensions of the two monoliths and their possible use in the construction of the gigantic Jupiter temple.[3] According to their calculations, the block weighs 1,000.12 t,[4] thus practically confirming older learned estimations such as by the French scholar Jean-Pierre Adam.[5]
The established dimensions of the rectangular limestone block are:
A second ancient monolith was discovered in the same quarry only in the 1990s. With its weight estimated at 1,242 t, it even surpasses the dimension of the well-known Stone of the Pregnant Woman.[7]
The established dimensions of the rectangular limestone block, on the assumption that it continues its shape in the hidden parts underground, are:
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Stone_of_the_Pregnant_Woman Stone of the Pregnant Woman] at Wikimedia Commons