Cave of Pan

Photo Comments

View looking north inside the base of the limestone cliff at the opening of a not-too-deep cave from which the spring used to originate.  Due to seismic activity, the source of the spring moved slightly to the south.

This cave is the nucleus beside which the sacred sanctuary was built.  In the "abode of the shepherd god Pan," a pagan cult began as early as the 3rd century BCE.  The ritual sacrifices were cast into a natural abyss reaching the underground waters at the back of the cave.  If the victims disappeared in the water, this was a sign that the god had accepted the offering.  If, however, signs of blood appeared in the nearby springs, the sacrifice had been rejected. (from a sign at the site).

Researchers, led by Adi Erlich and Ron Lavi, found that the cave long associated with Pan (the “Pan’s grotto”) wasn’t just a cult cave.  In the late 1st century CE, Agrippa II (the great-grandson of Herod the Great) transformed the site and its surroundings in front of the grotto into a Roman-style open-air dining/banquet complex.

Recent excavations have exposed the distinct stone on the right side of the image.  The excavators believe that a statue may have been placed upon this and that it was surrounded by water in the cave.

Agrippa II, raised in Rome, seems to have imported Roman-style models of garden/grotto-banqueting spaces (nymphaeum-triclinium types) into Banias. The layout (water, cave, statues, aqueduct) has close parallels with Roman grotto/dining complexes, e.g. Sperlonga in Italy.