But it was no backwater place. In fact, it was a religious resort center of the day. You would go there to worship your favorite god. The place was scattered with religious sites, streets lined with temples of the ancient Syrian worship of the Canaanite storm and fertility god, Ba'al, whose worship was always at odds with the worship of the God, Yahweh, of the Old and New Testaments. It was an ancient Las Vegas-like religious resort city.
Historians list no fewer than fourteen temples in the city.
Near the city there was a great hill, with a deep, dark cavern within it that was said to be the birthplace of the great god Pan, the god of nature. The city was known as Panias and even today it is known as Banis. The stories of the Greek gods find their origin in Caesarea Philippi. Others claim that the cave was the gate of hell itself, or more correctly, Hades, entrance into the dark, shadowy underworld of the gods. Above the vast opening of this dark cave Herod built an enormous white-marbled temple to the godhead of Caesar, where Caesar would be worshiped as god.