Paneas was certainly an ancient place of great sanctity and, when Hellenised religious influences were overlaid on the region, the cult of its local numen gave place to the worship of Pan, to whom the cave was dedicated and from which the copious spring rose, feeding the Huela marshes and ultimately supplying the river Jordan.[8] The pre-Hellenic deities that have been associated with the site are Ba'al-gad or Ba'al-hermon.[9]