The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria, the majority of which has been occupied and administered by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon Mountains with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad (Ruqqad) in the east, with an alternative definition having it stretch further east, up to Wadi 'Allan. It hosts vital water sources that feed the Hasbani River and the Jordan River. Two thirds of the area was depopulated following the 1967 Six-Day War and later effectively annexed in 1981. In 2019, during the first Trump administration, the United States became the first country to recognize Golan Heights as part of Israel. In 2026, Colombia became the second to do so. Apart from these two, no other UN member state has formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the territory, and the international community largely considers it Syrian land under occupation. In late 2024, amid the collapse of the Assad regime and the Syrian government's control, Israeli forces entered and took control of the United Nations‑monitored demilitarized buffer zone on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights. The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Golan dates to the Upper Paleolithic period. The plateau was home to the biblical Geshur, and was later incorporated into Aram-Damascus, before being ruled by several foreign and domestic powers, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Itureans, Hasmoneans, Romans, Ghassanids, several caliphates, and the Mamluk Sultanate. It was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century until its collapse, and subsequently became part of the French Mandate in Syria and the State of Damascus in 1923. When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Arab Republic, spanning about 1,800 km2 (690 sq mi). Israeli forces invaded and occupied the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War, and Syria dismissed any negotiations with Israel as part of the Khartoum Resolution at the 1967 Arab League summit. Civil administration of a third of the Golan Heights, including the capital Quneitra, was restored to Syria in a disengagement agreement the year after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Construction of Israeli settlements began in the territory held by Israel, which was under a military administration until the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law in 1981, which applied Israeli law to the territory; this move has been described as an annexation and was condemned as illegal by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 497. After the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, control of the Syrian-administered part of the Golan Heights was split between the state government and Syrian opposition forces, with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) maintaining a 266 km2 (103 sq mi) buffer zone in between to help implement the Israeli–Syrian ceasefire across the Purple Line. From 2012 to 2018, the eastern half of the Golan Heights became a scene of repeated battles between the Syrian Army, rebel factions of the Syrian opposition (including the Southern Front) as well as various jihadist organizations such as al-Nusra Front and the Khalid ibn al-Walid Army. In July 2018, the Syrian government regained full control over the eastern Golan Heights. After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Israel occupied the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights as a "temporary defensive position", followed by two additional Syrian villages, Jamlah and Maaraba.
Etymology The name Golan first appears in the Hebrew Bible as a city in Bashan. The Greek form Gaulanitis emerged as the name for an administrative region in the 3rd century BCE, and its linguistic cognates continued to be used for an administrative division in the region ever since. The borders of what was called Golan in classical or medieval sources are known to have varied over time. The name Golan Heights was not used in English before the 19th century.
Biblical city The Hebrew Bible mentions Golan (גּוֹלָן) as a city in the territory allotted to the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, designated as one of the six Cities of Refuge (Deut. 4:43 וְאֶת־גּוֹלָן בַּבָּשָׁן לַמְנַשִּׁי "and Golan, in Bashan, belonging to the Manassites"; Josh. 20:8 וְאֶת־גּוֹלָן בַּבָּשָׁן מִמַּטֵּה מְנַשֶּׁה "and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh"; and Josh. 21:27/1Chron. 6:56 אֶת־גּוֹלָן בַּבָּשָׁן וְאֶת־מִגְרָשֶׁיהָ "Golan in Bashan with its pasturelands"). The Tosefta (Makkot 3:2) pairs Golan with Kedesh: "Three cities Joshua set apart in the land of Canaan, and they were set opposite three beyond the Jordan, like two rows of a vineyard . . . Kedesh in Galilee opposite Golan in Bashan." The ketiv at Joshua is גלון *Galon, a pronunciation also seen in the Septuagint as Γαυλων, Γελων. Flinders Petrie interpreted the word Golan as meaning "something surrounded, hence a district".
Golan as a region The first references to Golan as a region emerge following the 322 BCE conquest of Alexander the Great, with Gaulanitis forming an administrative area under the rule of Ptolemaic empire and then the Seleucids beginning in 200 BCE. Mishnaic Hebrew הגבלן the Gavlan (c. 100 CE) and Jewish Palestinian Aramaic גובלנא, גוולנה Guvlana, where the -a suffix may be the definite article for a meaning of the Guvlan, describe a region or city in the same area. JPA יבלונה Yavlona, identified with Guvlana by scholars, is the subject of c. 375 CE Talmudic debate over its inclusion in the Land of Israel. The Mishnaic and Aramaic forms of this name may reflect Greek influence.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
