PANEAS, or BANIAS, a village of Palestine, situated at the foot of the Jebel Ileish, the Mount Hermon of Scripture, is supposed to be on or near the site of the Dan of the Jews. Its name was changed to arsarea Philippi by Philip the Tetrarch, eon of Herod, in honour of the emperor Tiberius and himself. The village contains only about 150 house., inhabited by Turks, Greeks, Druzes, and Arabs. It stands on a piece of ground inclosed by the river of Banias and the Jordan, and backed by the mountains at the foot of which, to the north-east of the village, the river of Banias takes its rise in a spacious cavern beneath a precipitous rock. This precipice has several niches, in one of which the base of a statue still remains; and each of them had an inscription iu Greek characters, which are now no nearly effaced as to bo unintelligible. The cavern and Paneium, or sanctuary of Pan, within it, are described by Josephus ['Jewish War,' iii. 10-7), from whom it appears that the fountain or spring was considered as the source of the Jordan, and the outlet of the small lake Phiala. Around the spring are great quantities of largo hewn stones, which probably belonged to the Temple of Augustus, built by Herod. Philip also added greatly to the town ; indeed Josephus (ii. 9, 1) cells him the founder of Coasarea in Banias.
Although these springs are by far the most copious they are not the most distant from the Dead Sea, and cannot be considered as the true source of the Jordan, which may be placed at about 4 miles N.E. of
Banim, near the foot of a hill called Tel-el-Kadi. [PstrartNE.] The river of Banias flows on the north side of the village, where there is a well-built bridge, and some remains of the ancient town ; but the principal part of the old town appears to have stood on the opposite side of the river, where the ruins extend nearly a mile from the bridge. No walla remain, but great quantities of stone and archi tectural fragments are scattered about; there are also some granite columns entire. On the south side of the village are the ruins of a very strong turreted castle, surrounded by a ditch and wall ; and about four miles to the eastward of the village, on an eminence, are the ruins of another castle, once evidently a atrong fortress, and appa rently coeval with that in the village. It is surrounded by a wall ten feet thick, and flanked with numerous round towers built with equal blocks of stone about two feet square, and has only one gate on the south side. This castle, which is called the Castle of Banias, contains the ruins of many private habitations; and at both western corners there is a succession of strongly-built low apartments like cells, dark, vaulted, and provided with loop-holes for musketry ; there are also four wells in this castle full of water. &nine is about 23 miles E. by N. from Tyre.
(Bnrckhardt, Travels in Syria ; P000cke, Description of the East ; Seetzen, Travels ; Mangles and Irby ; v. 15.)