The area of Caesarea Philippi, so named by Philip the Tetrarch in honor of Caesar Augustus, was the site just at the foot of Mt. Hermon (very possibly the mount on which Jesus was transfigured).  What makes this place so remarkable is this is the place where the headwaters of the Jordan River begins; and the way that it does so is astonishing.  Due to the unique geology of the mountain and the way the snow melts it follows a crack underneath the mountain and then springs up from this place as a 30-foot wide river of rushing water coming straight out of the cliff rock.  It quite literally looks like water coming from a rock.  You can imagine this inspired a great number of superstitious followings and it was a site for pagan worship ever since the time of Hellenism.

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At the time of Jesus, there were many alcoves carved into the face of the rock where different people and cultures had set statues of their gods to worship.  There were at least 14 different areas there identified to be dedicated to different Syrian gods and Greek gods.

 

People in that area believed that many of these gods had at different times taken the form of a man, like the Greek god Pan, and condescended down from the heavens to interact with mankind.

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The Romans, too, included one of their own.  But it wasn't a traditional Roman god they had set up to worship but rather a likeness of Caesar Augustus which was a man that they now professed, upon his death, became a god.

 

So there were few, if any, more religiously-superstitious places to which Jesus could have brought His disciples.

 

It is there against the backdrop of rushing water coming from a great rock and amongst the scattered idols that some believed were gods that became a man and others believe to be men that became a god, that Jesus turns and asks His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"

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Then Simon-bar-Jonah utters those remarkable words: "Thou are the Christ."