Modern name: Afqa (or Afka) Grotto. Source of the Adonis river (Nahr Ibrahim). Large temple slowly collapsing down the hill dedicated to Aphrodite1. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afqa for plentiful references and Aliquot2 for more detail. There is a sequence of three temple sites on the road following the river up from the coast, at Mashnaqa and Mugheireh, and there are Roman inscriptions on the road. There is also a dedication to Zeus Heliopolitanus. Zosimus (History, Book 1) describes the festivals:-
"Another story was likewise much circulated of the Palmyrenes. Between Heliopolis and Bilbis is a place called Aphaca, where is a temple dedicated to Venus Aphacitis, and near it a pond resembling an artificial cistern. Here is frequently seen, near the temple and in the adjacent places, a fire in the air, resembling a lamp, of a round figure, which has appeared even in our time, as often as people have assembled there on particular days. Whoever resorted hither, brought to the pond some offering for the goddess, either in gold, silver, linen, silk, or any thing of like value. If she accepted it, the cloth sunk to the bottom, like substances of greater weight; but if rejected, they would float on the water; and not only cloth and such substances, but even gold, silver, or any other of those materials which usually sink. For an experiment of this miracle, the Palmyrenes, in the year before their overthrow, assembled on a festival, and threw into the pond several presents of gold, silver and cloth, in honour of the goddess, all of which sunk to the bottom. In the following year, at the same festival, they were all seen floating on the surface ; by which the goddess foretold what would happen."
References
- ↑George Taylor (1967). The Roman Temples of Lebanon. Beirut : Dar el Mashreq Publishers. p. 15 and plates 101, 102.
- ↑Julien Aliquot (2009). La Vie religieuse au Liban sous l'Empire romain: Liban-Nord. Beyrouth : Presses de l’Ifpo, pp. 258-260, Section 25, Afqa.