Under Roman rule, the temple was dedicated to the Emperor Alexander Severus. Described as a noble city situated in a vast expanse of sand and renowned for its rich soil and pleasant streams, the ancient city of Palmyra was a stopping point for caravans traversing the Syrian Desert (Pliny the Elder Natural History 5.88.1). The temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire in a campaign against the temples of the East made by Maternus Cyn… Standing in the … Despite the modern names of the structure, it is uncertain which gods were worshipped in the structure. In that period, the temple was located within the military camp of the XXth Palmyren… There is evidence that the site has been settled by people since the early second millennium B.C.E.Known from ancient literary records—including Assyrian texts and the Hebrew Bible—Palmyra … The temple, consecrated to the Mesopotamian god Bel, worshipped at Palmyra in triad with the lunar god Aglibol and the sun god Yarhibol, formed the center of religious life in Palmyra and was dedicated in AD 32. As an architectural product it draws on rich, canonical forms derived from both the Graeco-Roman and Near Eastern spheres and its technical aesthetics are of the first order. It looked in many ways like a great Greek temple. The Temple of Bel (Arabic: معبد بل‎), sometimes also referred to as the "Temple of Baal", was an ancient temple located in Palmyra, Syria. The Temple of Bel is one of the great architectural achievements of the Mediterranean world during the early first millennium.

The temple was established in the first century BC and is celebrated primarily for its wall paintings. The Temple of Bel, also known as the Temple of the Palmyrene gods, was located in Dura Europos, an ancient city on the Euphrates, in modern Syria. Palmyra's remarkable 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel was demolished in August 2015.