Tour Gamla:
Mountaintop Fortress-City and Home of Heroes

Gamla is an unforgettable high point - literally - in your Golan Heights tour. Its name means 'camel', and when you first spy it in the distance, its camel-hump shape, rising sharply from the floor of a volcanic valley, is unmistakable and dramatic.

But the true drama of touring Gamla is your experience of living history, with the remains of the Roman battlefield all around you, as you listen to Josephus' ancient account of the battle for their freedom Gamla's inhabitants fought against the Romans in 68 CE.

The true drama of touring Gamla is your experience of living history, with the remains of the Roman battlefield all around you

Hiking down to tour Gamla itself, you'll see the tower the Romans undermined, the synagogue from Jesus' day (where modern Golan residents celebrate family events), an olive-oil factory that was the source of the ancient inhabitants' prosperity, and more. All the while, Gamla's famous vultures, the biblical 'eagle', soar overhead.

In the end, many of Gamla's inhabitants gave their lives to preserve their independence. And not only their independence: You'll discover that coins minted at Gamla, unearthed by Israeli archaeologists after the Six Day War, bear the inscription "for the redemption of Jerusalem the Holy" and you'll always remember the moment you realized that Jerusalem, though 100 miles away, is also right next door.