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DUBY TAL/ALBATROSS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

KNOWN IN ANTIQUITY as Caesarea Philippi, the site of Banias, located in the picturesque landscape south of Mt. Hermon at the headwaters of the Hermon Stream, features an array of archaeological treasures, including a sacred grotto to the Greek god Pan (cave in the cliff), several temples (foreground), and a mysterious monumental structure about 100 yards to the west (near the rectangular platform in the center) that dates to the early Roman period. While excavator Ehud Netzer argued this structure might be a temple built by Herod the Great to honor Caesar Augustus, a new look at some long-forgotten finds suggests the building may have had a very different function.