Located in the center of the Golan Heights,
Gamla contains Israel's highest waterfall, 51m high.
It also contains the archeological site of the ruins of ancient Gamla dating from the time of Joshua,
some 700 Bronze-age burial dolmens,
and a nesting raptor colony on the cliffs of the Gamla Stream which includes a colony of griffon vultures, Gyps fulvus.
Of course we hoped to photograph them, but after several hours the only ones we saw were in the acclimatization cage.
We learned later that only two of the birds are currently in residence on the cliffs.
Barbary falcon, Falco pelegrinoides
isabelline wheatear, Oenanthe isabellina
Syrian rock hyrax (dassie), Procavia capensis
Unidentified lizard, probably starred agama, Stellagama stellia
Ancient Gamla was built on the southern slopes of a steep hill in the ravine which looks like a camel's hump ("gamla" in Aramaic and Hebrew). The city wall was breached by the Romans in 66 BCE.
A Christian village was located here between the 4th and 5th centuries. A church and a monastery were built in the 6th century. It was abandonend after the Arab conquest in the mid-7th century. It was inhabited again in the 13th and 14th centuries. A Syrian village was established here in the 20th century. It was abandoned after the 6-day war in 1967.
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Last modified 30 November 2022