Memorial site

Gadot Overlook – "Mizpe Gadot"

"Mizpe Gadot", the memorial site for the fallen of the Golan – Alexandroni Brigade is located on a hill well known as a Syrian's strategic post named "El Murtapha" which means "The Exalted". This post was located there in order to prevent any possibility to attack Syria using main road No. 91 running from "Daughters of Jacob Bridge" till Quneitra – the biggest city on the Golan Heights and the Syrian headquarters for the Golan Heights till the Six Days War on 1967. In this post that was taken by the Golan Brigade soldiers, one can still find combat channels, fighting stances and old Syrian bunkers.

The memorial site, built in 1972, was monument by Ezra Orion, the commander of the brigade's commando unit, and Gershon Knispal  . The brigade fallen from the Six day War throughout the Yom Kippur War, the First Lebanon War to the Second Lebanon War and the fallen soldiers in-between those wars, and  in other combat missions, are being perpetuated in this memorial site.

This memorial site, the gate to the Golan Heights, attracts many visitors. Every day, tourists and hikers stop by the memorial site. The site is one of only two remaining ex-Syrian military posts in the Golan, is easily accessible, offers amenities for passersby (a snack bar, souvenir shop and public restrooms), and presents a magnificent observation point that clearly demonstrates the Syrian threat on our settlements at the foothills of the Golan.

The site includes a concrete monument, shaped like a military post, and offers a magnificent view of the entire Upper Galilee, from the inclines of Mt. Hermon to Mt. Dov, from the Beit Shean Valley to the slopes of the Eastern Galilee Mountains. Across the road, opposite the monument, one can find a small snack bar and souvenir shop. With the assistance of the IDF and the Jewish National Fund, we paved a way through mine fields and laid water pipes that reach the site. An access road and parking lots were built, as well as circumferential walking paths and resting spots, group observation points and study corners.

Above the monument and to the west, on an observation point towards our territory, especially towards Kibbutz Gadot, lies a stone on which the words of Colonel Emanuel (Mano) Shaked, the Brigade's Commander at that time, are encrypted:  "From here you look so much bigger…". By these words the commander meant the courageous, non-compromising steadfastness of the civilians against the total control of the Syrians and against all damages and casualties caused by them, during many years of total control over the territory beneath them.