Luna Gal, Water park on Golan Beach, Sea of Galilee, Israel
Luna Gal was a water park on Golan Beach, on the north-eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was built on about 40 dunams by five Golan Heights communities and opened in 1984. Its attractions included the 18-metre Kamikaze slide, the Hurricane, the Typhoon, a slow slalom slide, a wave pool and an Olympic swimming pool added in 1987.
Luna Gal was planned from 1982 by architects Edna and Michael Gilad and opened in spring 1984 on 40 dunams at Golan Beach, funded by five Golan villages with a $5 million investment. A receivership was appointed in December 1991 over 16 million shekels of debt; the site was sold in June 1998 and closed permanently in 2020.
The park's name, Luna Gal, combines the Hebrew words for moon and wave. It was founded by five Golan Heights communities — Eliad, Givat Yoav, Neot Golan, Aniam and Ma'ale Gamla — each holding an equal share, and the moshav members received many free entry tickets, a practice the 1991 receiver noted. The wider Golan Beach site also offered boat, water-ski and kayak rental and a pub-restaurant open late.
The park closed permanently in 2020, and demolition began on 19 January 2023 to clear the site for a 150-room hotel over three floors, with construction starting in 2024 at a cost of 275 million shekels. The grounds on Golan Beach are therefore not open to visitors.
The park was the second water park built in Israel, after Park HaMayim Shefayim, but the first designed from the outset as a full-scale water park, at a cost of five million dollars. Its equipment was purchased in Germany, and the plans were drawn up in 1982 by architects Edna and Michael Gilad.
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