Hike+in+Bainis

Location of your site:
Located in Israel's Golan Heights region, the Banias waterfall is one of the natural wonders of the north. The Arabic name for this lush body of water, Panias, is taken from Greek mythology and refers to Pan, the Greek god of shepherds, perhaps due to the plentiful herding available in the area in ancient times.

**Geographical Features (Include a Picture or Map):** Mountains, rivers, waterfalls, grass, sand, trees

The Meaning of the Name of your Site:
We will be taking a hike as a group in the Bainis in Israel. Therefore the site is called "Hike In Bainis"

Historical Background/Significance:
Banias is an archaeological site close to Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights. It was constructed along the cliff which towered over the north of the city. It was dated to 87 CE. In the distant past, a giant spring gushed from a cave set in the limestone bedrock, tumbled down the valley and flowed into the Hula marshes. The Nahal Hermon stream is located in the Banias. The flow of the spring has decreased greatly in modern times. The water no longer gushes from the cave, but only seeps from the bedrock below it.

__ British Mandate to contemporary __
The Syria-Lebanon-Palestine boundary was a product of the post-World War I Anglo-French partition of Ottoman Syria. British forces had advanced to a position at [|Tel Hazor] against Turkish troops in 1918 and wished to incorporate all the sources of the Jordan River within the British controlled Palestine. Due to the French inability to establish administrative control, the frontier between Syria and Palestine was fluid. Following the [|Paris Peace Conference of 1919], and the unratified and later annulled [|Treaty of Sèvres] , stemming from the [|San Remo conference] , the 1920 boundary extended the British controlled area to north of the [|Sykes Picot] line, a straight line between the mid point of the [|Sea of Galilee] and [|Nahariya]. In 1920 the French managed to assert authority over the Arab nationalist movement and after the [|Battle of Maysalun], [|King Faisal] was deposed. The international boundary between Palestine and Syria was finally agreed by Great Britain and France in 1923 in conjunction with the [|Treaty of Lausanne], after Britain had been given a [|League of Nations] [|mandate for Palestine] in 1922. Banyas (on the [|Quneitra] /Tyre road) was within the French Mandate of Syria. The border was set 750 metres south of the spring. In 1941 Australian forces occupied Banias in the [|advance to the Litani] during the [|Syria-Lebanon Campaign] ; [|Free French] and Indian forces also invaded Syria in the [|Battle of Kissoué]. Banias's fate in this period was left in a state of limbo since Syria had come under British military control. When Syria was granted independence in April 1946, it refused to recognize the 1923 boundary agreed between Britain and France. Following the [|1948 Arab Israeli War], the Banias spring remained in Syrian territory, while the Banias River flowed through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into Israel. In 1953, at one of a series of meetings to regularize administration of the DMZs, Syria offered to adjust the armistice lines, and cede to Israel's 70% of the DMZ, in exchange for a return to the pre 1946 International border in the Jordan basin area, with Banias water resources returning to Syrian sovereignty. On 26 April, the Israeli cabinet met to consider the Syrian suggestions, with head of Israel’s Water Planning Authority, Simha Blass, in attendance. Blass noted that while the land to be ceded to Syria was not suitable for cultivation, the Syrian map did not suit Israel’s water development plan. Blass explained that the movement of the International boundary in the area of Banias would affect Israel’s water rights. The Israeli cabinet rejected the Syrian proposals but decided to continue the negotiations by making changes to the accord and placing conditions on the Syrian proposals. The Israeli conditions took into account Blass’s position over water rights and Syria rejected the Israeli counter offer. In September 1953, Israel advanced plans for its [|National Water Carrier] to help irrigate the coastal Sharon Plain and eventually the Negev desert by launching a diversion project on a nine-mile (14 km) channel midway between the [|Huleh Marshes] and Lake Galilee (Lake Tiberias) in the central DMZ to be rapidly constructed. This prompted shelling from Syria and friction with the Eisenhower Administration; the diversion was moved to the southwest. The Banias was included in the [|Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan], which allocated Syria 20 million cubic metres annually from it. The plan was rejected by the [|Arab League]. Instead, at the 2nd Arab summit conference in [|Cairo] of January 1964 the League decided that [|Syria], Lebanon and Jordan would begin a water diversion project. Syria started the construction of canal to divert the flow of the Banias river away from Israel and along the slopes of the [|Golan] toward the [|Yarmouk River]. Lebanon was to construct a canal from the Hasbani River to Banias and complete the scheme. The project was to divert 20 to 30 million cubic metres of water from the river Jordan tributaries to Syria and Jordan for the development of Syria and Jordan. The diversion plan for the Banias called for a 73 kilometre long canal to be dug 350 metres above sea level, that would link the Banias with the Yarmuk. The canal would carry the Banias’s fixed flow plus the overflow from the Hasbani (including water from the Sarid and Wazani). This led to military intervention from Israel, first with tank fire and then, as the Syrians shifted the works further eastward, with airstrikes. On June 10, 1967, the last day of the Six Day War, the Golani Brigade captured the village of Banias. Eshkol's priority on the Syrian front was control of the water sources.

= You're also responsible for a brief "Tour Guide" presentation in __ENGLISH__ to be given at your site in Israel. = > In the distant past, a giant spring gushed from a cave to tumbled down the valley and flowed into the Hula marshes. Currently it is the source of the Nahal Hermon stream. It now rises from this spring and two others at the base of Mount Hermon. The flow of the spring has decreased greatly in modern times. [|[1]] The water no longer gushes forth from the cave, but only seeps from the bedrock below it.
 * **Banias** aka **Paneas in hebrew:** בניאס‎ is an archaeological site by the ancient city of ** [|Caesarea Philippi] **, located at the foot of [|Mount Hermon] in the [|Golan Heights].