Caesarea Philippi
Description
Caesarea Philippi, a city at the beautiful foot of Mount Hermon near the sources of the Jordan. We have mention of it only in the first two Gospels [Mt 16:13 -18; Mk 8:27 ] during Peter's messianic confession. Augustus handed this city over to Herod the Great in 20 BC. He built a marble temple here near the cult site of the Roman deity Pan and named the city Paneas. The tetrarch *Philip expanded the city and renamed it Caesarea Philippi in honor of Emperor Tiberius and his own honor. Agrippa II further developed the city and named it Neronias in honor of Emperor Nero. During the Jewish War, Titus organized gladiatorial games here, in which captured Jews had to fight wild beasts and each other. On the ruins of the former city now stands the village of Banias [Panias = sanctuary of the god Pan] with the remains of a cliff castle.
Links
Street View
Pictures
Map
Dictionary information
Caesara Philippi
a city on the northeast of the marshy plain of el-Huleh, 120 miles north of Jerusalem, and 20 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, at the "upper source" of the Jordan, and near the base of Mount Hermon. It is mentioned in (Matt 16:13 ) and (Mark 8:27 ) as the northern limit of our Lord's public ministry. According to some its original name was Baal-Gad (Josh 11:17 ), or Baal-Hermon (Judg 3:3 ; 1Chr 5:23 ), when it was a Canaanite sanctuary of Baal. It was afterwards called Panium or Paneas, from a deep cavern full of water near the town. This name was given to the cavern by the Greeks of the Macedonian kingdom of Antioch because of its likeness to the grottos of Greece, which were always associated with the worship of their god Pan. Its modern name is Banias. Here Herod built a temple, which he dedicated to Augustus Caesar. This town was afterwards enlarged and embellished by Herod Philip, the tetrarch of Trachonitis, of whose territory it formed a part, and was called by him Caesarea Philippi, partly after his own name, and partly after that of the emperor Tiberius Caesar. It is thus distinguished from the Caesarea of Palestine. (See JORDAN)
EBD - Easton's Bible Dictionary