Har Bental is a volcanic mound about 40 miles southwest of Damascus in the Golan Heights. It overlooks Syria. The main caravan route from Palestine to Damascus ran through this area. The town of Quneitra is near the base of Har Bental and has been a rest stop for thousands of years because of its water supply. Saul's vision on the road to Damascus probably occurred near here. Mount Hermon is near here and may be the site of the Transfiguration rather than Mount Tabor.
Quenitra from Har Bental. Quneitra belonged to Syria before the 1967 Six Day War. There was fierce fighting for control of Quneitra during the last day of the war. Syria was anxious to negotiate a ceasefire to prevent Israel from taking more of the Golan Heights. To sway world opinion and the UN to move quickly, Syrian radio announced Quneitra had fallen and the Israeli army was moving toward Damascus. The Syrian authorities neglected to tell their troops it was not true. Confused, the Syrian troops retreated and allowed the Israeli army to occupy Quneitra before a cease fire was announced later that afternoon.
There was intense fighting again in the 1973 war with Syria and it changed hands several times before finally remaining under Israeli control. The US brokered a deal giving Quenitra back to Syria after the 1973 war. The Syrians found many of the homes demolished and accused Israel of blowing up the homes before they left. It was probably a combination of Israeli acts and the result of the fighting. You can see the roofs of houses lying on the ground in the picture. Syria left the city largely unoccupied as an open air war museum. Syria sees it as a memorial of Israeli cruelty and Israel criticizes Syria for not rebuilding it.
Today, the UN patrols a no-mans land between the base of Har Bental and Quneitra.
Damascus is about 40 miles that way.
The base of Mount Hermon is at the top left.
Military trenches on the top of Har Bental.
Mount Hermon is in the center background.
Distance markers on top of Har Bental.
Nimrod fortress is near Mount Hermon. Arab tradition associates the fortress with the hunter Nimrod mentioned in Genesis 10:8-9. It may have been a crusader fortress which was destroyed, and then rebuilt by Muslim rulers Ayyubid and Mamluk in the 13th century.
The fortress from one end...
...to the other end.
Banias / Caesarea Philippi guarded routes from Tyre to Damascus and is one of the sources of the Jordan River. Greeks worshipped the shepherd god Pan here. Herod's son Philip built his capital here - the name refers to Philip and to Caesar, Caesarea Philipi. It may have been the site of Canaanite Baal worship mentioned by Joshua. It was probably here that Jesus praised Peter's revealed testimony and said "thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church."
The niches in the rock wall behind us had idols of the Greek god Pan in the 2nd century BC.
Banias waterfall near Caesarea Philipi. It wasn't the rainy season, and we are not far from the headwater. This flows into the Jordan River.
Blaine and Linda at Banias waterfall.
The Canaanite city Laish became Dan when it was conquered by the tribe of Dan, setting Israel's borders from Dan to Beersheba.
Israel was divided into two kingdoms. Since the Kingdom of Israel no longer had access to the temple in Jerusalem, Jeroboam built an idolatrous alter in Dan, depicted here on the excavated base behind Linda.
Border between Israel and Lebannon. We took so many pictures this day, we had to come up with a way to remember this was looking into Lebannon.
This gate may date to when Abraham pursued Lot's kidnappers to Dan and rescued him (Genesis 14:14)
Hazor was the capital of the greatest of the northern Canaanite city-states conquered by Joshua. It became one of Solomon's chariot cities. The Assyrians destroyed it in the 8th century BC.
Hazor controlled the Via Maris trade route between Damascus and Megiddo and was near the route connecting Sidon on the Mediterranean Coast to Beth Shean.
Between 1800 and 1230 BC, Hazor was the most important Canaanite city in the area. It is mentioned in other ancient documents and archaeologists hope to discover a library in Hazor.
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