Sam and companions camped at Banias, formerly the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, September 17, 1867. They departed at 7:15am on September 18 and rode to Ain Mellaha.

The Quaker City Itinerary used the spelling Baniyas, a city in northern Syria.

Mark Twain Project: Quaker City Itinerary

Caesarea Philippi or Caesarea Paneas was an ancient Roman city located at the southwestern base of Mount Hermon, adjacent to a spring, grotto, and related shrines dedicated to the god Pan, and called "Banias, Paneas", or Baniyas (not to be confused with Baniyas in northwestern Syria). The surrounding region was known as the "Panion". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarea_Philippi Referred to as Baldwinsville in the index of McKeithan.

Banias is interesting for four reasons. Firstly, has been a sacred site from the times of pre-history and like all sacred sites first became so because it was a site of natural wonder. At Banias numerous springs miraculously gush out of the rocks around a cavern; the springs bring water from Mount Hermon and go on to become the River Jordan, while the cavern is shaped, equally miraculously, like a temple. Secondly, it was later an ancient Greek - and even later Roman - sacred site where they worshipped the god Pan - hence the name of Banias derived from Pan-ias. Thirdly, it was the site of the Roman city of Caesarea Philippi. Fourthly, it is where Jesus said to Peter: “Thou are Peter; and upon this rock will I build my church.”

From Bædeker:(1898)

Bâniyâs. — History. The modern Bâniyâs was anciently the Greek Paneas, which, according to Josephus, appears also to have been the name of a district. A grotto above the source of the Jordan was a sanctuary of Pan (Paneion). When Herod the Great received from Augustus the territory of Zenodorus and the tetrarchy to the N. and N.E. of the Lake of Tiberias, including Paneas, he erected a temple over the spring in honour of Augustus. Philip the Tetrarch, Herod's son, who inherited this district, enlarged Paneas and gave it the name of Cæsarea, to which was afterwards added Philippic to distinguish it from Cæsarea Palæstinæ (p. 272). This is probably the most northerly point ever visited by Christ (Matth. xvi. 13; Mark viii. 27). Herod Agrippa II. extended the town and called it Neronias, but the older name never entirely disappeared and in the 4th cent, was again revived. Titus here celebrated the capture of Jerusalem with gladiatorial combats , at which many of the Jewish captives were compelled to enter the lists with wild beasts or with each other. An early Christian tradition makes this the scene of the healing of the woman with the issue of blood (Matth. ix. 20). In the 4th cent, a bishopric was founded here under the patriarchate of Antioch. During the Crusades Bâniyâs was in 1229 or 1230 surrendered , together with the lofty fortress of Subêbeh (p. 300), to the Christians after their unsuccessful attack on Damascus. The knight Rainer Brus afterwards received the town and castle as a fief. In 1132 Bâniyâs was taken by Tâj el-Mulûk Bûri, Sultan of Damascus, but in 1139 it was recaptured by the Christians. A Latin bishopric, subordinate to the archbishopric of Tyre, was then founded here. Bâniyâs afterwards came into the possession of the Connétable Honfroy. Nûreddîn conquered the town in 1157, but could not reduce the fortress. The town was retaken by Baldwin III., but was finally occupied by Nûreddîn in 1165. Sultan el-Muazzam caused the fortifications to be razed. (Route 31 pages 299-300)

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From Murray, pages 445-449

CÆSAREA-PHILIPPI, Bâniâs.—This ancient city occupies one of the most picturesque sites in Syria. A broad terrace in the mountain side looks out over the plain of Hûleh westward to the castellated heights of Hunîn. Behind it rises in bold rugged peaks the southern ridge of Hermon, wooded to the summit. Two sublime ravines, one to the N. and one to the S., open up the ridge, having between them an isolated cone more than 1000 ft. in height, and crowned by the noble ruins of the castle of Subeibeh. On the terrace at the base of this cone lie!the ruins of Cæsarea-Philippi. The terrace itself is covered with groves of oaks and olive-trees, having glades of the richest green between them, and clumps of hawthorn-and myrtle here and there—all alive with streams of water and miniature cascades. In fact, as Mr. Stanley observes, it is almost a Syrian Tivoli.

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