The geography of Israel is very diverse, with desert conditions in the south, and snow-capped mountains in the north. Israel is located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia. It is bounded to the north by Lebanon, the northeast by Syria, the east by Jordan and the West Bank, and to the southwest by Egypt. To the west of Israel is the Mediterranean Sea, which makes up the majority of Israel's 273 km (170 mi) coastline, and the Gaza Strip. Israel has a small coastline on the Red Sea in the south.
Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m (9,232 ft) above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top, in the United Nations buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli-occupied territories, is the highest permanently manned UN position in the world, known as "Hermon Hotel", located at 2814 metres altitude. The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located with a top elevation of 2,040 m (6,690 ft). A peak in this area rising to 2,236 m (7,336 ft) is the highest elevation in Israeli-controlled territory.
The Anti-Lebanon mountains are a southwest–northeast-trending mountain range that forms most of the border between Syria and Lebanon. The border is largely defined along the crest of the range. Most of the range lies in Syria.
Buq'ata is a Druze town, administered as a local council, in the northern section of the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights. Buq'ata covers an area of 7,000 dunams (7 km²) between two mountains in the Golan Heights, Mount Hermonit and Mount Varda. Located 1,070 metres above sea level, it had a population of 6,752 in 2021.
Majdal Shams is a Druze town in the southern foothills of Mount Hermon, north of the Golan Heights, known as the informal "capital" of the Golan Heights. The majority of residents are Syrian Druze. Since the June 1967 Six-Day War, the village has been held by Israel as part of its military occupation of the Golan Heights, first under martial law, but since the adoption of the 1981 Golan Heights Law under Israeli civil law, and incorporated into the Israeli system of local councils.
Mount Arbel is a mountain in The Lower Galilee near Tiberias in Israel, with high cliffs, views of Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights, a cave-fortress, and ruins of an ancient synagogue. Mount Arbel sits across from Mount Nitai; their cliffs were created as a result of the geological processes leading to the creation of the Jordan Rift Valley.
Mount Meron is a mountain in the Upper Galilee region of Israel. It has special significance in Jewish religious tradition and parts of it have been declared a nature reserve. At 1,204 metres (3,950 ft) above sea level, Mount Meron is the highest peak in Israel within the Green Line, though many peaks in the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon, which was annexed by Israel in 1981, are higher.
The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about 1,800 km2 (690 sq mi). The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between disciplines: as a geological and biogeographical region, the term refers to a basaltic plateau bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east. As a geopolitical region, it refers to the border region captured from Syria by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967; the territory has been occupied by the latter since then and was subject to a de facto Israeli annexation in 1981. This region includes the western two-thirds of the geological Golan Heights and the Israeli-occupied part of Mount Hermon.
Mas'ade is a Druze village in the northern Golan Heights. It covers an area of 11,985 dunams, and in 2021 had a population of 3,812. It was given the status of a local council in 1982. Its inhabitants are mostly Syrian citizens and have permanent residency in Israel. Since the adoption of the 1981 Golan Heights Law, Mas'ade is under Israeli civil law, and is incorporated into the Israeli system of local councils.
Highway 87 is a 35 km long east-west highway in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It extends from the northern shores of Lake Kinneret through the central Golan Heights. It begins in the west at Kfar Nahum/Capernaum and ends in the east at Bashan Junction.
The Petroleum Road or Tapline Road is a privately owned north–south asphalt road in the Golan Heights. It is 47 km (29 mi) long. It begins near Mount Peres on the east edge of the central Golan, and ends in the northern Golan near the Israeli-occupied Golan-Lebanese frontier, nearby Ghajar.
Alonei HaBashan is an Israeli settlement located in the eastern Golan Heights, organized as a moshav shitufi, under the administration of Israel. The settlement was established after Israel occupied the area in the Six Day War in 1967. It falls under the municipal jurisdiction of the Golan Regional Council, and is the easternmost locality within Israeli-controlled territory. In 2021 it had a population of 472. It is part of the Hapoel HaMizrachi movement.
Route 999 is an east–west regional route in the northern Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the Six-Day War in 1967. For almost its entire length its access is restricted to Israeli army vehicles. It begins from Sion adjacent to the community Snir and the village Ghajar, where it splits north from Highway 99. About 2 km after this junction stands an IDF checkpoint. After the checkpoint the road moves in a northeast direction and climbs steeply on Shebaa farms in parallel with the international border between Golan Heights and Lebanon. The road passes near the Shebaa farms while it passes on its steep course in the Mount Hermon nature reserve. For the entire length of the road, IDF installations are standing, and it ends its length of 29 km with another IDF checkpoint near the lower cable-car of Mount Hermon, where it meets Highway 98.
Hermon nature reserve is a nature reserve in the north of the Golan Heights. It includes an area in southern Mount Hermon which is located in the Israeli occupied portion of the Golan Heights. The reserve excludes the Mount Hermon ski resort, Neve Ativ and the Nimrod Fortress National Park. The total area of the reserve is approximately 78,270 dunam.
Ein Qiniyye or 'Ayn Qunya is a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied southern foothills of Mount Hermon, 750 meters above sea level. It was granted local council status in 1982. Its inhabitants are mostly Syrian citizens with permanent residency status in Israel. In 2021 it had a population of 2,172.
The Yehudiya Reserve is a nature reserve in the central Golan Heights. With the area of 134 sq. km, it is the largest reserve in the Golans. The height differential of its landscape - from 200 meters below the sea level to 600 meters above - provides for high waterfalls. It is named after the ancient village of Yehudiya, one of many archaeological sites located within the reserve. Due to the varied scenery of streams, gorges with waterfalls, woodlands, rich wildlife, and volcanic basalt landscape it is a popular tourist destination in Israel.
The Bethsaida Valley, Arabic: Buq'at al-Butayhah, is a valley by the northeast shores of the Sea of Galilee at the steep foothills of the central Golan Heights.
