Golan Heights

The Golan Heights is a volcanic plateau, roughly 65 kilometers long and 25 wide, rising sharply from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee to a windswept landscape of basalt, grassland and ancient dolmens, bordered by Mount Hermon to the north and the Yarmouk River to the south. In spring it erupts in wildflowers, in winter it can be covered in snow, and from its western edge the lake lies 600 meters below. Two thousand years ago it was home to a thriving Jewish community: some 25 to 30 ancient synagogues have been found here, the oldest of them at Gamla. The Crusader era left Nimrod Fortress on its slopes.

From 1946 to 1967 the Golan was Syrian, and its guns shelled the Israeli valleys below. Israel took it in the Six-Day War, held it against a massive Syrian attack in 1973, and applied Israeli law to it in 1981. Today about 50,000 people live here, roughly half Israeli Jews and half Druze, among battlefields and ancient synagogues, Banias and Tel Dan, world-class wineries and Druze hospitality. Most visitors who spend a day here wonder why they did not spend a week.