Gamla (Gamala)
View of where the ancient city Gamla once was located. (Wikipedia) I. Early Background: Situated at the southern part of the Golan, overlooking the Sea of Galilee , Gamla was built on a steep hill shaped like a camel's hump, from which it derives its name. ( Gamla meaning 'the camel' in Aramaic & Hebrew : גַּמְלָא ). It was an ancient Jewish town/small city on the Golan Heights . Believed to have been founded as a Seleucid fort during the Syrian Wars , it transitioned into a predominantly Jewish settlement that came under Hasmonean rule in 81 BCE. Archaeological excavations have shown that in the place of Gamla there was already a settlement in the Early Bronze Age . The settlement was probably agricultural, as archaeologists have found evidence of long-term use of flint sickles. Some of the findings even go back to the Copper Age . The hill of Gamla remained largely uninhabited from the end of the Early Bronze Age II until the Hellenistic period. In Rabbi
