[1] Archaeologists localize the biblical city of Golan at Sahm el-Jaulān,[2] a Syrian village east of Wadi ar-Ruqqad in the Daraa Governorate, where early Byzantine ruins were found.
[2] Israeli historical geographer, Zev Vilnay, tentatively identified the town Golan with the Goblana (Gaulan) of the Talmud[3] which he thought to be the ruin ej-Jelêbîne on the Wâdy Dabûra, near the Lake of Huleh, by way of a corruption of the site's original name.
[7] At the same time it was enveloped by the regional wars fought by Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus (r. 103-76 BCE) against the Nabatean kings Obodas I and Aretas III between ca.
[1] In 23 BCE the Jewish king Herod the Great, a client ruler loyal to Rome, receives the rule over the wider Hauran region.
[6] A different view is that the Christians of the Golan were Ghassanids, an Arab tribe originally from Yemen, used by the Byzantines as frontier guards since the end of the 5th century.