From Mas’ada to Majdal Shams ("tower of the rising sun” in Arabic), the largest town in the Golan (pop. 8000). the road runs 5km along a beautiful valley. Two km past Majdal Shams is Moshav Neveh Ativ, founded after the mountain was captured in the Six-Day War. The moshav has developed a resort village to take advantage of the ski slopes on the southern face of Mount Hermon 10km away; call the ski office at 98 13 37. For information about rooms call 98 15 31- (Dorm beds-5 per room- NTS50, doubles NIS160. Breakfast included.) The Alimi family of the moshav rents the guest houses from house #19 (tel, 98 13 33); bring a phrasebook. Bus #55 travels twice a day to the villages (NIS8.30). It’s also possible to take a sberut taxi from Mas’ada to Kiryat Shmona in late afternoon for the same price as the bus. The road from Mas’ada to Kiryat Shmona is particularly scenic, running west along a gorge 1 and past the hilltop village of Ein Qinya and the silhouette of Nimrod’s Fortress.

Continuing toward Syria, still higher levels of the Golan can be reached. About 5km before the border are two kibbutzim, Merom Golan and Ein Zivan. Merom Golan (Golan Heights) was the first Israeli settlement in die Golan, founded a few 1 months after the Six Day War. Nearby, Mt. Bental is visible; the peak closer to Ein ! Zivan, blessed with a radio antennae, is Mt. Avital. From the observation point here you can see the destroyed Syrian city of Quneitra. In 1967, Israel captured the town after fierce fighting, only to return it to Syria in the 1974 disengagement agreement. Once a city of 30,000 and headquarters of the Syrian army, Quneitra is now a ghost town in the buffer zone of a tense border. Only an occasional UN vehicle breaks its strained silence.