Banias: Located at the foot of Mt. Hermon in the Golan Heights. The word Banias is a corruption of the word Panias (Arabic has no p sound), the name of the area dedicated to the Greek god Pan (4th century b.c.e.). Pan supposedly was half goat-half human – a god of nature, herdsmen, music, homosexuals and nymphs. Then the area became Roman - part of King Herod’s domain. From the New Testament – Banias is the place where Jesus designated Peter as the, “Rock.” Banias was conquered by Muslims in the 7th century and then by Crusaders in the 12th century.