page_title: Banias
section_title: Ottoman period
hierarchical_section_title: Banias / History / Ottoman period
caption_attribution_description: English: At Banias or Caesaria Philippi, 1891. From original silver print in book titled: "A Month in Palestine and Syria, April 1891," (author unknown). Original 19th century book in the possession of Kimberly Blaker, New Boston Fine and Rare Books.
context_page_description: Banias is an ancient site that developed around a spring once associated with the Greek god Pan. It is located at the foot of Mount Hermon, north of the Golan Heights. The spring is the source of the Banias River, one of the main tributaries of the Jordan River. Archaeologists uncovered a shrine dedicated to Pan and related deities, and the remains of an ancient city founded sometime after the conquest by Alexander the Great and inhabited until 1967; the ancient city was mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark by the name of Caesarea Philippi.
  The first mention of the ancient city during the Hellenistic period was in the context of the Battle of Panium, fought around 200-198 BCE, when the name of the region was given as the Panion. Later, Pliny called the city Paneas. Both names were derived from that of Pan, the god of the wild and companion of the nymphs.
  The spring at Banias initially originated in a large cave carved out of a sheer cliff face which was gradually lined with a series of shrines. The temenos included in its final phase a temple placed at the mouth of the cave, courtyards for rituals, and niches for statues.
context_section_description: The traveller J. S. Buckingham described Banias in 1825: "The present town is small, and meanly built, having no place of worship in it; and the inhabitants, who are about 500 in number, are Mohammedans and Metouali, governed by a Moslem Sheikh.
  In the 1870s, Banias was described as "a village, built of stone, containing about 350 Moslems, situated on a raised table-land at the bottom of the hills of Mount Hermon. The village is surrounded by gardens crowded with fruit-trees. The source of the Jordan is close by, and the water runs in little aqueducts into and under every part of the modern village."
caption: At Banias or Caesaria Philippi, 1891
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