GOLAN (kb, and 11; Sept. PatAt6v and rtoXAv), an ancient city of Bashan, allotted to the Levites, and made one of the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan (Deut. iv. 43; Josh. xx. 8; Chron. vi. 71). The name does not occur in Bible history after the division of the couutry among the tribes. Josephus calls it l'avXtivti (Arztiy. xiii. 15. 3 ; Bell. Yud i. 4. 8); and its province ravXaviris (Andy. viii. 2.. 3). The site of Golan has not yet been identified. Jerome says that in his day it was villa prxgrandis in Batanma (Onomast. s. v.) The province of Gaulanitis took its name from the city, as is stated by Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. 1. c.) It appears that after the Greek conquest of Syria the kingdom of Bastian was divided into four provinces, Gaulanitis, Tracho nitis, Aumnitis, and Batatura (Porter's Damascus, ii. 253). The three last wele only Greek forms of the names of ancient principalities; while Gaula nitis was the territory attached to the important city of Golan. The boundaries of Gaulanitis are not given by any ancient writer ; but they may be ascertained from some incidental references of Tosephus. On the south it was separated from Gadaris by the river Hieromax (Joseph. Bell. yud.
iii. 3. ; yournal of Sacred Literature for July 18.549 p. 292). The Jordan and Sea of Galilee formed its western border from the mouth of the Hieromax to Cmsarea Philippi (Joseph. Bell. yrid. iv. 1. 1). On the north it had Iturma, and on the east Auranitis and Trachonitis (Porter's Danzascus, 257-259). Gaulanitis was then the western pro vince of Bashan; and it still retains its ancient name under the Arabic form yau/diz (Arab. ; Heb. 11P.
Gaulanitis, or Jaulan, is about 4o miles long from north to south, by 20 broad. The greater part is flat table-land, with a deep son and luxuriant pas tures. The western side, as seen from Tiberias,
resembles the declivities of a mountain range, furrowed deeply by torrents and ravines. This is occasioned by the elevation of the plateau (about 2500 feet), and the depression of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan valley. On the north-west a spur from the Hermon range runs across it some 15 miles, and terminates in a conical pe-ak called Tell el-Faras. The scenery of this ridge is picturesque --graceful conical summits clothed with evergreen oaks, long winding glens filled with tangled copse, and little upland plains carpeted with green grass and spangled with wild flowers. The oaks ol Bashan,' of which prophets wrote and psalmists sung, are still here (Is. ii. 13; Zech. xi. 2), and among those rich pastures roamed in ancient days the herds of cattle, the pride of the country— ' Strong bulls of Basilan' (Ps. xxii. 12). Flocks too, wandered along the hill sides, and spread themselves over the green plateau ---` rams and lambs, and goats, and bullocks, all of them fat lings of Bashan ' (Ezek. xxxix. 18 ; Deut. xxxii. 14). The province was once densely peopled. The ruins of no less than 127 towns and large villages are known, only eleven of which have now any settled inhabitants. The whole country is overrun periodically by the wild Bedawin of the eastern desert, whose vast droves of camels and flocks of sheep devour the pastures, and too oftel, trample down the few corn-fields of the peasants (Porter, Damascus, ii. 250 seq. Handbook for S. and P., ii. 461 Burckhairdt, 'Travels in Syria, 277; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. 319, seq. ; Thomson, The Laird and the Book, 364, sey.)- J. L. P.
GOLD. [ZAHAn.]