From Tiberias or Rosh Pina, Highway 90 heads north toward Kiryat Shmona and Metulla. North of Kiryat Shmona, roads head west and south along the Lebanese border back toward Safed, and east to Hurshat Tal National Park, Baniyas Waterfall, and the Mount Hermon Ski Center in the Golan Heights.
Joseph Trumpeldor & the Founding of Kiryat Shmona
Kiryat Shmona was founded in memory of a legendary episode in the Jewish movement to resettle the Galilee during the early years of the 20th century. The name Kiryat Shmona, which means "Town of the Eight," refers to Joseph Trumpeldor, leader of a group of six men and two women who died at nearby Tel Hai defending their settlement from Arab attackers in 1920. Trumpeldor is the Israeli model of courage and heroism; he was born in Russia in 1880, served in the czar's army, lost an arm, and was decorated for gallantry by the czarina of Russia. The Zionist leader came to Palestine in 1912, and with his self-styled Zion Mule Corps, fought on the side of the British in Gallipoli during World War I. After the war he became a leader of Palestine's pioneer agricultural youth movement and settled at the Tel Hai kibbutz. Trumpeldor defended the settlement against marauding Arabs, until one day, when a particularly heavy attack came, and he refused to leave the kibbutz grounds. In a last-ditch stand, he and seven comrades were killed. His memorial, a few miles north at Tel Hai, is a statue of a lion at the edge of a cliff, head thrown back and mouth open, bellowing at the skies.
Avoiding Mines
When touring the Golan area, do not go exploring for shell fragments or souvenirs in the hills near the bunkers. As many as 100,000 to a million Syrian mines were planted in this area, and it may be 10 or 20 years before the Israeli army finishes minesweeping. It must be done inch by inch, and because many of the mines are plastic -- not detectable by metal-seeking devices -- laboriously slow probes and earth-turning machines must be used. En route you will see a couple of places where the tour buses stop to give visitors a look at the bunkers. Two million visitors (mostly Israeli) have been there before you -- so you can be sure it's safe. The barbed-wire fences that line much of the road, and the triangular yellow-and-red Hebrew signs on them, all mean the same thing: MINEFIELD!
