A theoretical model has been developed to study heating and melting of porous media comprised of semitransparent particles. The heating and melting phases are treated by two different models. Heat transfer by conduction and radiation in the bed of particles is approximated using the effective thermal conductivity concept. The melt is assumed to accumulate at the top of the unmelted bed and not to run off after the melting has started. Radiative transfer in the one-dimensional melt layer is treated rigorously, and the spectral nature of radiation is accounted for. The convective and radiative heating of the bed and the melt layer are treated parametrically. The results of calculations for different bed thicknesses are reported, and sensitivity studies involving the heat transfer coefficient, surroundings temperature, porosity, and particle diameter are presented and discussed.