About Gamla Nature Reserve

Gamla was an ancient town in the southern Golan Heights that thrived in the 1^st century BCE and 1^st century CE. The name Gamla means “camel” in Hebrew and refers to the steep rock ridge that resembles a camel’s hump, on which the town was built.

“Masada of the North”

Historian Flavius Josephus provides an account of Gamla’s fall to the Romans in 67 CE during the First Jewish Revolt when intense fighting ended with a mass suicide of Jewish inhabitants who threw themselves over the cliffs rather than surrender to the Romans. After the fall of Gamla, the town was never rebuilt.

Ancient Town of Gamla

Uncovered in the town is a synagogue considered to be the earliest in Israel.  Jesus may have preached there as “He went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues” (Matthew 4:23). Houses were built on terraces with stepped alleys between them. Evidence of oil presses suggests that olives and the production of oil were the city’s main economy.

Gamla Nature Reserve

The cliffs are home to the largest nesting colony of griffon vultures and raptors in the country. Gamla Waterfall, Israel’s highest waterfall, descends 51m deep into a canyon to join the Sea of Galilee. The park has over 700 dolmens, ancient burial mounds of large boulders and presumably only used to bury members of the elites.