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 the 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.Tina Shepardson. Stones and Stories: Reconstructing the Christianization of the Golan, Biblisches Forum, 1999. The plateau was home to the biblical Geshur, and was later incorporated into Aram-Damascus,Michael Avi-Yonah (1979). The Holy Land – from the Persian to the Arab Conquests (536 B.C. to A.D. 640) A Historical Geography, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p. 170 before being ruled by several foreign and domestic powers, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians,HaReuveni, Immanuel (1999). Lexicon of the Land of Israel (in Hebrew). Miskal – Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books. pp. 662–663 .Vitto, Fanny, Ancient Synagogue at Rehov, Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem 1974 Itureans, Hasmoneans, Romans, p. 4 "Scholarly consensus holds that the Golan became populated by Jews following the conquests of Jannaeus in c. 80 BCE and as a direct result of these conquests." 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 .
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 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";Deuteronomy 4:43, Sefaria. Accessed April 12, 2026. Josh. 20:8 וְאֶת־גּוֹלָן בַּבָּשָׁן מִמַּטֵּה מְנַשֶּׁה "and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh";Joshua 20:8, Sefaria. Accessed April 12, 2026. and Josh. 21:27/1Chron. 6:56 אֶת־גּוֹלָן בַּבָּשָׁן וְאֶת־מִגְרָשֶׁיהָ "Golan in Bashan with its pasturelands").I Chronicles 6, Sefaria. Accessed April 10, 2026.Golan, Bible Hub. Accessed April 5, 2026. "Golan is a term that appears in the Bible as a city of refuge and a region.... It is located in the territory of Bashan, east of the Jordan River, in what is now the modern-day Golan Heights.... Golan is first mentioned in the Book of Deuteronomy as one of the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan River... Golan was allocated to the half-tribe of Manasseh, one of the tribes of Israel that settled east of the Jordan River." 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.BHS p. 389. Murtonen, A. (1986). Hebrew in its West Semitic Setting. p. 235. Flinders Petrie interpreted the word 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.M. Sotah 9:15, b. Sanhedrin 97r, y. AZ 2:4, y. Megillah 3:1. CantRabb 2:13 (vss הגבלון), PRabb 15:1 (vss הגבלון), PdRK 5:9. Jastrow ad loc., Guggenheimer ad loc. Kohut, Vol. 2. p. 226. Reeg, Die Antiken Synagogen, pp. 157-158. Urman (1985) pp. 14-24. 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.Y. Sheviit 6:1. Jastrow, Guggenheimer ad loc. I. Press (1943). BJPES. 10 (4): 123. On y/j confusion in the Tiberian dialect see Gumpertz, Y. F. (1953). Mivta'e sefatenu (in Hebrew). pp. 51ff. The Mishnaic and Aramaic forms of this name may reflect Greek influence.
In addition to the city of Golan (Γαυλάνην), Flavius Josephus describes "Gaulanitis" (), a territory containing the towns of Gamla (or Jamla) and Bethsaida in its "Lower" part, Sogane (Σωγανή, possibly Khirbet Sujan or Sakhnin) in its "Upper" part, and also Solyma (Σολύμης, unidentified), Gabala (Γάβαλα, גבלאB. Ketubot 112r. Sometimes described as a district, or as equivalent to MH haGavlan. Kohut, Arukh hashalem Vol. 2 p. 226. Neubauer, La Geographie, pp. 66-67. Jastrow ad loc. Ishtori Haparchi writes that "they call Gebal, Guvla"; cf. comments of Zunz.), and Seleucia (Σελεύκειος, unidentified). Some scholars believe that the "Upper" Gaulanitis was north of the "Lower", differentiated by a political boundary, while others say it was merely higher in elevation. Josephus writes that the Galilee is bordered by Gaulanitis to its east, but he also refers to Judas of Galilee as "Judas the Gaulanite (Γαυλανίτης, EusSyr ܓܘܠܘܢܝܐ) of Gamla", indicating that Gaulanitis and Galilee overlapped. His account likely reflects Roman administrative changes implemented after the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), although the suffix -itis probably dates to the Ptolemaic era (305-30 BCE).
Eusebius (c. 300) describes that "the region around Golan (Γαυλὼν) in Batanaea shares its name", and a writer as late as Gregory of Cyprus (c. 500) mentions a "rural region of Golan (Κλίµα Γαυλάµης)".
The Arabized form (الجولان, sometimes romanized ) was in use prior to the Muslim conquest of Syria, and appears in the poetry of Al-Nabigha and Hassan ibn Thabit (c. 600) who served in the courts of the Ghassanids. Both write of "Ḥārith al-Jawlān (حارث الجولان)"; referring to a "mountain" (see below), and Hassan ibn Thabit also uses it to refer to the "peaks of the Golan", but more generally as a region as well, calling their capital at Jabiyah, Jābiyat al-Jawlan (i.e. "Jabiyah of the Golan"). In later Arabic texts it continued to be used to refer to a "mountain" or region somewhat east and north of Goulanitis or the modern Golan Heights, containing Jabiyah, Aqraba, and Burqat Ajwal; its capital was Banias according to Al-Ya'qubi (891), and Nawa, sat at its eastern edge, according to Al-Nawawi (c. 1250). Al-Jawhari and Abu Mansur al-Azhari (c. 975) mention a "land" called Jawlan, and Ibn al-Faqih (c. 900), Al-Maqdisi (985), Nasr al-Iskandari (c. 1150), and Al-Dimashqi (c. 1300) knew Jawlan as a "district of Damascus". Al-Nawawi writes that "Jawlan contains around 200 villages. Its width is a day's journey, and its length is somewhat more". René Dussaud posits that Jawlan stretched from the Jordan River to the Ruqqad, and from the Yarmouk River to Banias.
In 1826, Jawlan was said to refer to part of the Jedur plain. In 1885, Gottlieb Schumacher described an area of 560 square miles, corresponding to the modern Golan Heights: The entire area of modern Jaulân, including ez Zawîyeh esh-Shurkîyeh and Sha'rah in the north, is about 560 square miles. By the Jaulân is meant only the high plateau and a part of its declivity, viz., the north-west portion sloping from the Huleh marshes: and bounded in the west by Jordan, south-west by the Lake of Tiberias, north by the declivities of Hermon and the Wâdy el-Adjam, north-east by Jedur or Nahr er-Rukkád, and east and south by Haurân or the Nahr el-Allân, and in the south by 'Ajlûn or the River Yarmuk.Politically, the Jaulân forms one of the administrative districts (Kaimakâmîyeh) of the Sanjak or the Liva of Haurân (with the seat of government of a Kaimakam in el-Kuneitrah), and as such is under the Mutasarrif of the Haurân at Sheikh Sa'ad.
Its border was moved east in 1883 to the Nahr al-Allan, including Saham al-Jawlan, and west in 1884, to exclude it.
Golan as a mountain