Posted By admin on May 20, 2015
SITES & INFORMATION: Overview
The Golan Heights rise from 400 to 1700 feet in the northeastern section of the country. Israel's highest mountain, Mt. Hermon, is located here. The plateau was once actively volcanic and the northernmost points remain weathered and desolate. The Golan overlooks the Hula Valley, Israel's richest agricultural area. The area of the Golan is roughly 38 miles long and varies in width from 9 to 16 miles (444 square miles). The Banyas River flows through the region and the Yarmuk River separates the Golan from Jordan.
The Golan appears to have been used as a cemetery in ancient times. Archaeologists have discovered funerary monuments that are about 4,000 years old. The area was not settled until the days of Herod the Great in the first century B.C.E.
During the Ottoman Empire (1517-1917), the Golan was under Syrian administration. When the British defeated the Turks in World War I, they dismantled their empire and, with the French controlled the region. When Syria won its independence in 1946, it regained control of the Golan and, within a few years emptied the region of the sparse population of Bedouin and Druze, and turned it into a military encampment from which to harass Israel.
The Golan is a strategically important region, extending like a finger between the borders of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. In the past, that finger was crucial to preventing the Israeli defense dike from bursting and allowing Arab armies to flood the country. Why? Because it is only about 60 miles -- without major terrain obstacles -- from the western Golan to Haifa and Acre, Israel's industrial heartland. In the hands of a friendly neighbor, the escarpment has little military importance. If controlled by a hostile country, however, the Golan has the potential to again become a strategic nightmare for Israel.
From 1948-67, when Syria controlled the Golan Heights, it used the area as a military stronghold from which its troops randomly sniped at Israeli civilians in the Hula Valley below, forcing children living on kibbutzim to sleep in bomb shelters. In addition, many roads in northern Israel could be crossed only after probing by mine-detection vehicles.
Israel repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, protested the Syrian bombardments to the UN Mixed Armistice Commission, which was charged with policing the cease-fire, but nothing was done to stop Syria's aggression. Meanwhile, Israel was condemned by the UN when it retaliated.
Today, you can visit former Syrian bunkers to see the view their gunners enjoyed of the valley below. This will give you an appreciation of the strategic value of the Golan that you cannot get without seeing it for yourself. Be sure to stay on the well-worn paths, because old Syrian mine fields remain uncleared beyond them.
After the Six-Day War began, the Syrian air force attempted to bomb oil refineries in Haifa. While Israel was fighting in the Sinai and West Bank, Syrian artillery bombarded Israeli forces in the eastern Galilee, and armored units fired on villages in the Hula Valley below the Golan Heights.
A great view of the Hula Valley is afforded from the Hill of the Twenty-Eight, an old British fortress captured by the Haganah at a cost of 28 lives. When efforts to dynamite the building failed, the groups commander strapped the dynamite to his back, ignited it, and threw himself at a weak point in the wall.
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The Golan Heights | Virtual Israel Experience
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