Gamla: The Lost City Forgotten for Two Thousand Years and Rediscovered

Under the guise of war and the wonderful achievements attained, *b'siyata d'shamaya*, researchers have managed to infiltrate ancient Jewish sites that were previously beyond our borders. In one of these events, the investigator R' Zeev Erlich, may Hashem avenge his blood, was killed.

A similar situation occurred in the land after the Six-Day War. The State of Israel doubled its territory, and some sites were never explored, due to a lack of interest. Thus it happened that the city of Gamla, where a heroic battle between the Jews and the Romans took place, was neither known nor recognized. It was a story known to historians only from the writings of Josephus, and nothing more.

The city of Gamla did not surrender to the Romans and rebelled against them, and Josephus describes it as follows: 'Gamla did not yield to him, for its residents trusted in the fortress of their city, which was stronger than Jotapata. For above a lofty mountain there protrudes a sheer rock cliff, and in the middle, it rises like a camel's hump, spreading at the top and sloping steeply forward and back, resembling in shape a camel, and thus it was named. From two sides and in front, this rock is surrounded by chasms, which no man can traverse, and only from the rear, where the promontory branches off from the mountain, the approach to it is less steep. Yet in this place too, the residents dug a deep trench on the side (obliquely) to block the city's entrance. On this steep slope, houses were built very tightly, so the whole city looked as if it were hanging over the abyss and falling downwards. The city faced southwards, and the elevated cliff above the city also looked southwards, and upon it stood the city fortress (the height of the city, the spire), and below it was the steep slope without a wall, as it fell into a deep abyss. A water spring was found beneath the wall at the city's edge,' (The Jewish War IV:1).

Agrippa II, the last king of Judea, laid siege to Gamla for seven months, but could not subdue it. He retreated in despair, and meanwhile, Josephus, the commander of the Galilee, reinforced the city with additional fortifications in tunnels and trenches. But then, the Roman commander Vespasian attacked it, in the month of Elul, year 67 CE (3 years before the destruction of the Temple), at the head of three legions.

Vespasian set up a huge fortified camp on the facing mountain and began the work of building the ramp that would allow his soldiers to enter the city. King Agrippa stood opposite the city and called upon those fortified within to surrender to Vespasian. In response, they threw stones at him, and he was wounded in his hand. Vespasian was furious at the attack on his appointed ruler and ordered the ramp building to continue with even greater intensity.

The ramps rose slowly. The Romans set up iron battering rams and battered the wall until it breached. Hundreds of Roman soldiers began to climb up the cliff into the city, and the defenders fled to the highest point in the city. The Romans were filled with the enthusiasm of victory and climbed in masses, but suddenly the Jews turned around and began rushing downwards with war shouts, demolishing the houses on the climbing Romans. Gamla appeared like a volcano spewing out sling stones, and fragments of houses and roofs fell into the abyss, taking groups of Roman soldiers with them. Vespasian was among the first to break into the city and was trapped inside with a few soldiers. For a moment, it seemed that Vespasian himself might fall before the Jews, but his bodyguards surrounded him in a circle and rescued him. On the other hand, the decurion, Ibotius, a fierce and terrible warrior who had tormented Jews throughout the land, was not so lucky that day. He was crushed by Gamla's defenders. The Roman army retreated.

The Roman soldiers considered giving up and moving on, but Vespasian did not agree and forced them to continue the siege on Gamla, despite the extreme difficulty of entering it. For a whole month, the Romans besieged Gamla, the food and water began to dwindle, and many of the warriors fled through the caves to other cities. On the night of *Hoshana Rabbah*, a month after the siege began, three soldiers from the thirteenth legion sneaked into Gamla's watchtower in total darkness. They undermined its foundations, and the tower fell into the abyss along with the guards standing on it. Yet Vespasian still hesitated to approach the city. Two days later, on the 23rd of Tishrei, the wicked Titus, son of Vespasian, arrived with two hundred valiant soldiers as reinforcements for his father Vespasian. Together, they broke into the city, exploiting a strong wind that greatly hindered the defenders. Four thousand people were slaughtered in Gamla, and another five thousand jumped to their deaths into the surrounding chasms.

The horrific story was known to historians, but no one identified Gamla's location for two thousand years. The German archaeologist Gustav Dalman, director of the "German Evangelical Institute for the Study of Ancient Palestine," identified Gamla in 1911 at Tel ed-Dra near the Yarmouk River. Jewish researchers noted that this identification did not fit the description of Josephus, who described that from Gamla one could see Migdal, whereas from Tel ed-Dra this was impossible. Gamla remained just a story.

A few months after the Six-Day War, when by the grace of Heaven Israeli forces succeeded in capturing the Golan Heights, Yitzhak Gal, a 23-year-old member of Kibbutz Afikim, toured the area. When he crossed the stream of the Daliyot wadi, suddenly, a mountain resembling a camel's hump loomed before him. He recalled Josephus's description and wondered: Could this be Gamla? Could it be that on this barren, desolate mountain once stood a bustling Jewish city, and here the great battle took place where thousands of warriors died?

Archaeologist Shmaryahu Talmon arrived at the site, starting excavations. Gamla's Tel was excavated for 14 years, and today it is clear that this is the site described in historical books. Many different remnants of the Jewish settlement were found buried within, including the synagogue of Gamla, slingshot stones, arrows, Jewish coins, an olive press, and a ritual bath. Today, Gamla's Tel serves as a national park, and thousands visit it every year.