The Banias (Arabic: نهر بانياس, romanized: Nahr Baniyas; Hebrew: נחל חרמון, romanized: Nahal Hermon) is a river flowing from the Golan Heights to Israel. It is the easternmost of the three main northern tributaries of the Jordan River; together with the Dan River and the Hasbani River, it forms the Jordan River's upper catchment (UCJR). Israel has included the stream in the Hermon nature reserve.
The Hasbani (Arabic: الحاصباني / ALA-LC: al-Ḥāṣbānī; Hebrew: חצבני Ḥatzbaní) or Snir Stream (Hebrew: נחל שניר / Nahal Sənir), is the major tributary of the Jordan River that flows in Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Israel. In the mid-19th century, what the Westerners would call 'Upper Jordan River', the locals called Nahr Hasbani, Arabic for Hasbani River.
The Hasbani River derives most of its discharge from two springs in Lebanon, the Wazzani and the Haqzbieh, the latter being a group of springs on the uppermost Hasbani. The Hasbani runs for 25 mi (40 km) through the Wadi al-Taym in Lebanon before crossing the border at Ghajar and shortly after joining with the Banias and Dan Rivers at a point in northern Israel, to form the River Jordan. For about 4 km (2.5 mi) downstream of Ghajar, the Hasbani forms the border between Lebanon and the Golan Heights.
Banias (Arabic: بانياس الحولة; Modern Hebrew: בניאס; Judeo-Aramaic, Medieval Hebrew: פמייס, etc.; Ancient Greek: Πανεάς), also spelled Banyas, is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek god Pan. It had been inhabited for 2,000 years, until its Syrian population fled and their homes were destroyed by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War. It is located at the foot of Mount Hermon, north of the Golan Heights, the classical Gaulanitis, in the part occupied by Israel. The spring is the source of the Banias River, one of the main tributaries of the Jordan River. Archaeologists uncovered a shrine dedicated to Pan and related deities, and the remains of an ancient city dating from the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
The ancient city was first mentioned in the context of the Battle of Panium, fought around 200–198 BCE, when the name of the region was given as the Panion. Later, Pliny called the city Paneas (Ancient Greek: Πανειάς). Both names were derived from that of Pan, the god of the wild and companion of the nymphs. Herod the Great, king of Judaea, constructed a temple dedicated to Augustus at the site. Subsequently, Herod's son, Philip the Tetrarch, further developed the area, establishing a city. In 61 CE, Agrippa II expanded and renamed the city Neronias Irenopolis. The ancient city was mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, under the name of Caesarea Philippi, as the place where Jesus confirmed Peter's confession that Jesus was the Messiah; the site is today a place of pilgrimage for Christians.