With a car, we were able to see lots of generally unseen sites – public transport can be hard to match up with timetables and sites etc. We based ourselves in Tiberias, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (or Kinneret) and set out on lots of great trips.
The Golan Heights is a piece of mountainous terrain which was captured from the Syrians after their attempted attack on Israel in 1967. It was an important victory because the Syrian army would fire rockets to the Jewish farms below. I didn’t really understand how taking the area was so important from a military point of view until I saw it for myself. From the top of one of the mountains, I could see the plains of the Israeli territory all the way to the Kinneret, and in the other direction the Syrian towns in the plain below. Terrifying to think what a rocket could do from there.
Since this land has been trodden on for millenia, and settled by so many (different) people, I thought there would be SOOO much to see. There isn’t too much, however, mainly because the same areas keep getting resettled, and the old stuff is reused to help build the new. After all, the best way to increase an empire is to have the ones before it forgotten about. There is still some cool stuff to see, however. The largest site is Bet Shean, an enormous city which was once the height of the Roman empire in the region (Hey! It’s not even in the Golan -ed). It was very similar to many of the other sites seen in Turkey, but not so impressive. The bath-house remains were awesome though. Water would be boiled and the steam piped underneath the marble tiles to heat the floor and the air above it. I want one in my toilet with little romans fuelling it.
As we were walking through the ruins two enormous BOOMS went off, and we nearly peed our pants. Good thing it was only a couple of Israeli fighter jets breaking the speed of sound barrier creating sonic booms. The army is everywhere here, it’s cool. Broken down, rusted tanks half buried by the side of the highway, and armed soldiers trying to hitch rides home for the weekend made their presence felt.
How war has changed over 500 years. We visited the remains of a crusader castle, Belvoir, which means nice view in some extinct language called French or something. Nobody was there because it was impossible to get to, lucky we had a car and some Inspector Gadget guiding woman with a map. It reeeally does have a nice view, but it was a little foggy so we couldn’t see very much. The Mamluks, who were the Muslims to invade the area even found it tough to beat this castle. Eventually they did it, but left straight away so it is well preserved.
The Mamluks themselves built their own fortresses, and they can be found on the border with Syria. They are predictably located on the top of a mountain also with spectacular views. If you care for it, the structure was called Nimrod and was by far the most impressive fortress I’ve seen. I even managed to get lost in a secret tunnel which unexpectadly led to the moat and I was eaten by an alligator. Actually, moats in this area never contained any water since so much was needed and they were so high up. Instead, they were built really deep to impede a rush of would be attackers.
We also visited the Jewish military cemetery of Tel Chai, which was most moving because outside there was a memorial to a dozen Medics and First Aid Responders who had been killed in August by rockets fired into their town. A dozen photos, patriotic flags and a pile of rubble, including rocket debris was left as a memory of what occured.