While Baalbek was a site with Temples going way back into the Bronze Age, the most impressive structures there now are Roman ones, chiefly The Temple to Jupiter built by Hadrian. It seems like originally the far more important cult center was to the West, in the eastern part of the Byblos District of Modern Lebanon.
A site in that region called Afqa/Afka/Apheca/Afeka is one of the sites proposed to be the Aphik/Aphek allotted to Asher in Joshua 19:30 and Judges 1:31. Marvin H. Pope of Yale University proposed that somewhere in this area was the ancient home of El referred to in the Ugarit texts. In Greek Mythology this same region is the setting of the story of Adonis/Adonais who's name comes from the Biblical Hebrew Adoni/Adonai which is not otherwise known to have been used by Canaanites who preferred Baal as their word for calling a god Lord. So I really do think this is evidence this cult was a Paganized worship of of the God of Abraham.
Both those references to Asher's Aphik mentioned a Rehob nearby. If this is the same Rehob that is identified with the "Entering in of Hamath" in Numbers 13:21 as well as the Bethrehob of Laish in Judges 18, then that is the city of Northern Dan. Judges 1:31 lists these cites as among those Asher didn't drive the Canaanites out of, so that's consistent with them still being Canaanite when Dan arrives later.
My current theory reads that verse as making them the northern most of those cities and Accho/Acco the Sothern Most. Accho is the city called Ptolemais in Greco-Roman times and thus in The New Testament, Acre by the Crusaders and is now known as Akka in modern Israel. It would be the only of the Judges 1:31 cities that is today in Israel rather then Lebanon. And Asher unlike the tribes in the surrounding verses didn't even make these Canaanite cities Tributaries, they remained fully independent.
So Rehob/Laish/Dan is probably Yanouh (the nearby temples at Qaalat Faqra and Yammoune are also interesting).
For Naphtali the main cities they didn't drive the Canaanites out of, but that they did make Tributaries, were Beth-Anath and Bethshemesh according to Judges 1:33. These Tributaries I think were still practicing their Native Baal Worship however. Two of the sites proposed for Beth-Anath are in South Eastern Lebanon close to the proper Naphtalite territory, Aynata and Safad El Battikh.
More then one city is called Beth-Shemesh in the Hebrew Bible since naturally there were many Houses of Sun Worship. The one west of Jerusalem was no longer in use by Hellenistic times. The Bethshemesh in the Land of Egypt mentioned in Jeremiah 43:13 we know was called Heliopolis by the Greeks. Baalbek was also called Heliopolis by the Greeks. Baalbek and Afqa are close to being on the same Latitude, along with the port city of Byblos.
In 1 Kings 5:18 what the KJV weirdly translated "Stonequarers" is actually Gibilites or people of Gebel/Byblos. Since a Maternal Danite was the architect of The Temple I consider this evidence Gebel was by this time Dan's port city (but was still Canaanite during the Amarna period).
The Byblos District is among the regions of Lebanon where today the majority of the population is Maronite. I have a theory that the Maronites are the modern descendants of the Danites. They are significantly the Majority of Christians in Lebanon, and DNA studies have shown the Lebanese Christians to be among the groups even closer related to The Jews then the Arabs are. Since the people classified as Arabs includes the Ishmaelites, Keturites, Edomites and probably now also descendants of Moab and Ammon, that would have to make The Maronites fellow descendants of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Maronites are an Eastern Rite Catholic Church meaning like many Ancient Danites they practice Idolatry.
The Adonis connection also means this region's version of Astarte might be the version who became Aphrodite after entering Greece through the Southern Peloponnese. The same region of Greece said to have been colonized by Danoi/Danaans, but I doubt they left much a permanent genetic impact there being not it's first residents and then later conquered by the Dorians.
There are other Maronite populations in Lebanon further south closer to Sidon and the border with Israel. For those who view the Leshem taken over by Danites in Joshua 19:47 as separate from Laish and closer to Sidon it could be around here. There used to be a Maronite population in the Golan Heights as well, meaning traditional Tel-Dan with Dan isn't entirely wrong.
Before 1948 there were two Maronite Towns in Israel proper, both way up north just south of the border with Lebanon. Kafr Bir'im and Jish. Mainstream Historians believe this area became Maronite after some Maronites migrated south during the Ottoman period and that these cities were Muslim for about a Millennium, but in my view no solid evidence they were ever Muslim exists.
Kafr Bir'im is north of a Mountain in Israel called Mount Meron, I think that is where the name Maronite actually came from and thus they were always connected to that mountain somehow. Other theories on the origin of the name I think are folk etymology.
In Jish a Maronite Church was built over an ancient Synagogue, which suggests the Maronites of Jish do in fact descend from people who were practicing Judaism before they converted to Christianity.
In the first century AD I suspect these Danites who later became Maronites close to the modern Israel-Lebanon Border were not very Idolatrous and practicing Judaism proper, while the ones up in the Byblos region had fully descended into Idolatry and may have virtually forgotten their Biblical Heritage. But both would have been using the Aramaic/West Syriac language explaining how both became part of the same Liturgical Rite when they became Christians.
Jish is also called Gush Halav and is the city known in Josephus as Gischala/Giscala. John of Gischala was a native of this city who became a prominent leader among the Zealots during the Jewish Revolt that started in 66 AD and was taken prisoner by Titus after his victory in 70 AD.
I have been wondering now if some of the Old Testament prophecies about Dan that have lead to many Pre-Millennial Futurist thinking the Antichrist will be a Danite were perhaps actually fulfilled by John of Gischala?
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