Founded by King Herod’s Son, It Was Home to 15,000 : Metropolis Uncovered in Golan Heights

BANIYAS, Israeli-Annexed Golan Heights —  U.S. and Israeli archeologists have unearthed a Roman metropolis that in its heyday was the ancient world’s equivalent of New York.

Founded in about AD 10 by Herod Philip, son of King Herod the Great, ancient Baniyas grew over the next several hundred years “into a huge city,” archeologist Vassilios Tzarferis of the Israel Antiquities Department said recently.

“We can estimate the population in Roman times of up to 15,000 people, which for those days means it was a New York,” Tzarferis said.

Traces of ruined villas can be found a mile from the city center, he said.

Herod Philip chose the site near the source waters of the Jordan River and next to a cave where pagans worshiped Pan, the goat-like god of the shepherds. The cave is part of a national park that today is a favorite site for picnics.

Named for Emperor

He named his city in honor of Emperor Augustus Caesar, but it became known as Caesarea Philipi to distinguish it from the port of Caesarea constructed by his father on the Mediterranean Sea.

American teams working at the site this year have partially uncovered a dozen 30-foot-high arches that formed one side of what appears to be a long shopping mall, said John Wilson, an archeology professor from Pepperdine College in Malibu, Calif.

The arches now are the bottom layer of a wedding cake of history. Wilson said Crusader conquerors 1,000 years later built a citadel on top. In the 13th or 14th Century Mameluke raiders from Egypt added a palace.

Syrian Village on Top

“On top of it all was a Syrian village,” Wilson said. Baniyas was part of Syria until the Golan Heights region was taken by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981.

Diggers have uncovered a public gate dating to the 1st Century and a 2nd- or 3rd-Century house with mosaic floors, one of which is largely intact.

Wilson said “we are encouraged there may be considerable sections of ancient Baniyas that are preserved.” But he estimated that it would take up to 10 years with as many as 100 people working each digging season to expose a substantial part of the city.

Historians and archeologists had many clues to the city’s location, Wilson said.

Depicted on Coins

“The Pan cave with niches and inscriptions appears exactly on coins of the 2nd and early 3rd Century that say they are from Baniyas,” Wilson said. “There are other coins with pictures of buildings, which we feel are as accurate, and that’s what we’re looking for.”

The area is referred to as “Paneon” by the Jewish historian Josephus, who says Herod the Great built a white stone temple to Roman Emperor Augustus there.

For years, it was strategically important because it controlled the road from Damascus to the sea, Wilson said. It lost its importance after Ottoman Turks took control, he said.

In addition to Pepperdine, the other American colleges that sent students to work at Baniyas this year were Averett College of Danville, Va., and Hardin-Simmons University and Abilene Christian College, both of Abilene, Tex.