GAULON. — A Levitical and asylum city in the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh, in Bashan, Transjordan (Jos. 20:8; 21:27). Today Sabun el-Gollan. Conquered and destroyed by Alexander Jannaeus (Flavius Josephus, *Bell. Jud.*, I, 4, 8).
The place gave its name to the Roman province of Gaulonitis, which extended from the foothills of Mount Hermon in the north to the Yarmuk River in the south, and from the Sea of Galilee in the west to the Nahr el-Allan in the east. The Wadi Gormajah, at the height of the Little Jordan, divides Gaulon into Upper and Lower Gaulonitis, the former with its capital at Sogane (= el-Jehudijieh), and the latter with its capital at Gamala (= Gamleh; *loc. cit.*, II, 20, 6; IV, 1, 1). After the death of King Herod, it belonged to the tetrarchy of Philip (*loc. cit.*, *Ant. Jud.*, XVIII, 1, 6) and was finally incorporated into the Roman province of Syria.
Today the region, known as the Gollan, of volcanic nature, is quite arid and barren toward the north but fertile in the south with large areas cultivated for cereals. It is completely isolated, with the exception of villages along the two roads that, between Lake Huleh and the Sea of Tiberias, connect Palestine with Syria.