More Golan Photos

On the way to and from the ski trip, I managed to snap a few shots from the bus window.

The foothills of Mount Hermon
More Hermon foothills.
Sunset over a melted lake.
Sunset over Gamla (the furthest peak before the valley.) This is called the Metzada of the north, where the Jews threw their bodies onto their Roman besiegers rather than be taken alive. Not exactly a pleasant historic memory.

A shot of Gamla taken earlier, during the day.
Madjal Shams, a Druze village on the road to Mount Hermon. The Druze in the Golan still consider themselves Syrian, this area having been captured from Syria in 1948, unlike the Druze of Israel, who consider themselves Israeli.
The mountains of the Northern Golan
Madjal Shams at sunset.
Mountains and lakes. Twilight in the Golan.

The northern Golan is probably the most serene area in all of Israel. The land is green and fertile, with striking views and calm weather. The region was once populated by half of the tribe of Menashe, and is where Yiftach Hashofet (a Judge, or leader of the Jewish people in the times of the Book of Judges,) made his home. Today, it is largely empty, home to only about 20,000 Jews and 20,000 Arabs. It seems all this land wants is for its children to come back, and it's my dream of some day building a home up here.