Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan

Banias is a city that has seen almost every age of history pass through it. Nestling by Mount Hermon in the disputed Golan Heights region, the city was first established as an ancient cult site known since Canaanite times. Named Caesarea Philippi under Herod Phillip, it was a focal point for the cult of Pan throughout the Roman period, attracting the opposition of the Christian Emperor Constantine. Conquered by Arabs and Crusaders, it was finally destroyed in 1967: occupied by Israeli forces in the Six Days War and then bulldozed flat, the City of Pan was no more. This book is a history of the city where Herod the Great, Jesus of Nazareth, Saladin and Mark Twain once walked.