A rectangular pool on the island of Motya in Sicily thought to serve as an artificial inner harbor, or perhaps a dry dock, for Phoenician mariners roughly 2,550 years ago is now known to have been the largest known sacred pool from the ancient Mediterranean world used to serve the pagan god, Baal. 

Located at the center of the Marsala Lagoon on the western coast of Sicily, Motya was the site of a flourishing settlement in the Bronze and Iron Ages. In the latest edition of the journal Antiquity, archaeologist Lorenzo Nigro, affiliated with the Italian Institute for Oriental Studies at Sapienza University in Rome, reported that the artificial 172-foot by 121-foot lake is slightly larger than an Olympic-sized pool, was the centerpiece for idolatry.  The freshwater pool fed by three subterranean springs stands at the center of a  circular sanctuary hosting three prominent temples dating to 550–397 BCE. The pool was added around 550 BC when the city was rebuilt after an attack by Carthage, Rome’s ancient rival. The three temples, the rectangular basin, and various other stone monuments and symbolic installations at the site were all enclosed inside a circular stone wall that was 10 feet high and 390 feet in diameter. 

It is believed a statue of Baal stood nearby. The calm waters served as a surface for observing and mapping the movement of stars, as emphasized by the alignment of structures and features positioned around the sacred enclosure. 

The Phoenicians regarded the stars and constellations as gods and sacred ancestors. Foremost of these was Ba’al, represented by the constellation Orion.

Mentioned more than 90 times in the Bible, most notably when Elijah defeated the priests of Ba’al, also known as Moloch, in a contest to bring down fire from heaven to burn a sacrifice, Ba’al became the archetypical form of idol worship. Pantheistic, his adherents worshipped Mother Nature while denying the existence of a creator. Followers of Ba’al engaged in bisexual orgies and sacrificed human infants, burning them alive. Anthropologists conjecture that the child sacrifice was to cull the population after the inevitable outcome of wanton sexuality.

A second temple was dedicated to the pagan goddess Astarte, an ancient fertility goddess closely related to Ishtar.  Identified respectively with symbols of sexuality and war, she is also depicted as winged, carrying the solar disk and the crescent moon as a headdress.

The remains of a statue were recovered from the pool’s center, and a Greek inscription discovered in a votive pool in the southeast corner identified the statue as Baal. The statue was estimated to be about two and a half meters tall and stood on a platform.