18 Sights in Golan Regional Council, Israel (with Map and Images)
Explore interesting sights in Golan Regional Council, Israel. Click on a marker on the map to view details about it. Underneath is an overview of the sights with images. A total of 18 sights are available in Golan Regional Council, Israel.
List of cities in Israel Sightseeing Tours in Golan Regional Council1. Banias
Banias or Banyas is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek god Pan. It had been inhabited for 2,000 years, until it was abandoned and destroyed following the Six Day War. It is located at the foot of Mount Hermon, north of the Golan Heights, in the part of Syria occupied and annexed by Israel. The spring is the source of the Banias River, one of the main tributaries of the Jordan River. Archaeologists uncovered a shrine dedicated to Pan and related deities, and the remains of an ancient city founded sometime after the conquest by Alexander the Great and inhabited until 1967. The ancient city was mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, under the name of Caesarea Philippi, as the place where Jesus confirmed Peter's assumption that Jesus was the Messiah; the site is today a place of pilgrimage for Christians.
2. Jiza
Joyze is an abandoned Circassian village in the center of the Golan Heights near the settlement of Aloni Habashan. The village consisted mainly of Circassian inhabitants from the Caucasus Mountains who emigrated at the end of the 19th century, who numbered 841 inhabitants in 1967. Another ethnic group in the village was the Eurocians, who numbered 264 inhabitants at the time. The houses in the village were built of basalt stones with tiles on the roofs. There was a school and a mosque in the village. The German researcher Gottlieb Schumacher, who conducted a survey of the Golan Heights between 1884 and 1885, notes in his book "The Golan" about the Circassians' settlement in the Golan Heights:
3. Umm el Kanatir
Umm el-Qanatir, also spelled Umm el-Kanatir, also known as Ein Keshatot, is an archaeological site on the Golan Heights, whose main phase is dated to the mid-5th–8th centuries. Excavations have revealed a Roman-period settlement, first inhabited by pagans and later by Jews, who left behind the ruins of an exquisite synagogue when they abandoned the town after it being destroyed by the catastrophic 749 earthquake. The site is located 10 kilometres east of the Dead Sea Transform, one kilometre southwest of Natur.
4. Synagogue
Gamla, alt. sp. Gamala was an ancient Jewish city on the Golan Heights. It is believed to have been founded as a Seleucid fort during the Syrian Wars which was turned into a city under Hasmonean rule in 81 BCE. During the Great Revolt, it became an important stronghold for rebels and because of this Gamla is a symbol for the modern state of Israel and an important historical and archaeological site. It lies within the current Gamla nature reserve and is a prominent tourist attraction.
5. Ophir Viewpoint
Mitzpe Ophir is an observation point in the southern Golan Heights, established in memory of the boy Ofir Shaal, who was born in 1970 and died in 1986 of a rare liver disease. From the plaza of the observatory, a marked walking path leads along the cliff and the remains of the Skopje outpost, towards the remains of the colony of Bnei Yehuda. In the area of the observatory, olive trees are planted and between them are a number of stone tables used for picnics.
6. עמק הבכא
The Valley of Tears is the name given to an area in the Golan Heights after it became the site of a major battle in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, known as the Valley of Tears Battle, which was fought from 6 October to 9 October. Although massively outnumbered, the Israeli forces managed to hold their positions and on the fourth day of the battle the Syrians withdrew, just as the Israeli defenses were almost at the point of collapse.
7. אנדרטת גדוד 405
The 405th Battalion (Tiger) monument in the Golan Heights is located about a kilometer west of Tel Juder. The memorial commemorates 21 fighters of the Artillery Battalion who fell in the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War. Fifteen fell in the area of the memorial site and others in other places in the Golan, such as a third and the battalion sergeant major commemorated at the jeep memorial in the Golan Heights.
8. בית הבק
The Beck House is a group of basalt-stone structures that stand about 500 meters east of the Jordan estuary of the Sea of Galilee in a grove of tall eucalyptus trees. The place served as a residence for a group of pioneers from Ukraine and was one of the first settlement attempts around the Sea of Galilee. The buildings are named after 'Abd a-Rahman Basha Al-Yusuf', the owner of the place, known as Habak.
9. Ar Ramthaniyah
Ramathania is an abandoned village in the center of the Golan Heights, about 10 kilometers east of Qatsrin. The village was inhabited intermittently at different times, and from the 19th century the Circassian community lived there, until their departure during the Six-Day War. At the end of the 19th century, it was one of the first attempts at Jewish settlement in the Golan Heights.
10. Naffach
Kfar Nafakh is an abandoned Syrian village in the center of the Golan Heights. In October 2020, an archaeological excavation discovered a 1700-year-old border stone, on which the inscription "Blacksmith's Village" was written in Greek letters. This is the first evidence found in archaeological excavations in the Golan for a name that has been preserved from the Byzantine period.
11. Mt. Odem
Mount Odem is a dormant volcano in the Golan Heights. The mountain is located within the Odem Forest Reserve, which is located between the settlement of Restaurant in the north and Kibbutz el-Rum in the south. The mountain is named after the color of the earth pronounced by the Arabic name of the mountain: "Ras al-Ahmar".
12. Rujum el Hiri
Rujm el-Hiri is an ancient megalithic monument consisting of concentric circles of stone with a tumulus at center. It is located in the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, some 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) east of the coast of the Sea of Galilee, in the middle of a large plateau covered with hundreds of dolmens.
13. Ein Ziwan
Ain Ziwen is an abandoned Chaksi village in the northern Golan Heights. The village is located about four miles south of Quneitra and about two miles east of the gathering of Ini Zivin Ashiloy, named after him. That's how the village was named. It was a kind of grass, a harmful wild plant common in grain fields.
14. Mumisiyah
Mumasia, an abandoned Celaksi village in the northern Golan Heights, is located about five miles south of the city of Kunitra at the foot of Mount Benelassen (Atasini). Most of the inhabitants' villages are the Cheksim and Turkmen minorities, a sword from the 1967 war that is currently under Israeli control.
15. חורבת א-רפיד
The Arepad site is an archaeological site in the Jordan Park area of the Golan Heights. The site is located several hundred meters east of the Jordan River and on the top of a 52-meter-high mountain. Previously, boundary pillar 58 stood on the armistice line between Israel and Syria.
16. אנדרטת הג'יפ
The jeep monument in the Golan Heights is located about 300 meters west of the waterfalls junction, north of Route 87 in the Golan Heights. The monument is in memory of the two soldiers of the 405th Artillery Battalion ("Tiger") who fell at this site on October 7, 1973.
17. Bethsaida
Bethsaida, also known as Julias, is a place mentioned in the New Testament. Julias lay in an administrative district known as Gaulonitis. Historians have suggested that the name is also referenced in rabbinic literature under the epithet Ṣaidan.
18. Barak brigade memorial
The 188th Brigade Memorial is a memorial site in memory of the fallen soldiers of the 188th Brigade who fell in Israel's campaigns. The site is located in the Golan Heights north of Katzrin alongside Route 91, adjacent to the Barak Brigade camp.
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