On the northern heights sits Umm Qais, an idyllic, small Greco-Roman town (and later, Ottoman village).
Once called Gedara and renowned for its artists, Umm Qais is perched over the hot springs and banana plantations of Hammeh and the Golan Heights to the north, Lake Tiberius (Sea of Galilee) to the west, and the Jordan Valley to the south-west.
A drive through the "natural hothouse" of the lush Jordan Valley shows how its climate, waters and fertile earth encouraged human beings to hunt and gather, farm and settle here for more than 15,000 years. This dramatic landscape embraces more than 200 known antiquity sites.
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