Baalbek (Ar., Baʿlabakk, known in Greek and Roman times as Heliopolis, the city of the sun; Duval 128) is a city and archaeological site in the northern Bekaa (Biqāʿ) valley of Lebanon, a part of the Syrian-African rift. Since the ʿAbbāsid period, initially in narratives of the Islamic conquests (futūḥāt) (Donner), the place has been named in Arabic chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and geographical texts. Its archaeological remains attracted the attention of travellers whose writings spread Baalbek's fame, as early as the middle Islamic period (334-656/945-1258).