Baal Hammon
| Baal Hammon | |
|---|---|
Statue of Ba士al Hammon on his throne with a crown and flanked by sphinges, 1st century. | |
| Other names | Ammon, Hammon |
| Venerated in | Carthage, Numidia |
| Major cult centre | Siwa Oasis, Jebel Boukornine, Volubilis |
| Abode | Heavens |
| Mount | Jebel Boukornine |
| Gender | Male |
| Temples | Jebel Boukornine Cirta Iol Hippo Regius Timgad Volubilis |
| Genealogy | |
| Consort | Tanit |
| Children | Gurzil, Iarbas |
| Equivalents | |
| Canaanite | Baal, El |
| Greek | Cronus, Zeus-Ammon, Zeus |
| Roman | Saturn, Jupiter-Ammon, Jupiter (god) |
Baal Hammon, properly Ba士al 岣mon (Phoenician and Punic: 饜饜饜 饜饜饜, romanized: Ba士l 岣m艒n), meaning "Lord Hammon", was a Punic-Libyan syncretic deity and the chief god of ancient Carthage. He was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation and esteemed as king of the gods. He was depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram's horns. Baal 岣mmon's female cult partner was Tanit. Baal Hammon was worshipped only in North Africa and Carthaginian colonies of the western mediterranean including Iberia, Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands.
In Carthage and North Africa, Ba士al Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was also worshiped as the horned deity Ba士al Qarnaim "Lord of the Two Horns", He had several temples in Volubilis, Cirta, Iol, Hippo Regius, Timgad and many others however his chief temple was in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Boukornine ("the two-horned hill") across the bay from Carthage, in Tunisia.