Postcard from Israel: Banias.

Photos by AKUS and Israelinurse

“… the place is called Panium, where is a top of a mountain that is raised to an immense height, and at its side, beneath, or at its bottom, a dark cave opens itself”.

Josephus, ‘The Jewish Wars’

At the foot of Mount Hermon rises a spring which feeds one of the four tributaries of the Jordan River – the Banias. Its name is derived from that of the Greco-Roman god Pan, to whom a temple was built at the site of the grotto from which the spring emerged. Niches bearing inscriptions mentioning the god Pan and the mountain nymph Echo can still be seen, along with the remains of a temple later built in front of the cave by Herod.

Herod’s son Philip made Banias his capital, renaming it ‘Caesarea Philippi’, and the place later became a site of Christian pilgrimage, having been mentioned in the gospels. The national park also includes later Crusader era sites.