JERUSALEM
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JERUSALEM
principal liills rise on the south-west and the east "facing the great tower", since the pool faces the
respectively. The former of these hills is called Mount Tower of Phasael. This valley, like all those which
Sion because, according to Josephus (Antiq. Jud
XVI, vii, 1), Eusebius, and all the authors, Jewish and
Christian, who have followed them, the city of Jehus,
or Sion^the City of David — stood there. This view,
however, is contested by certain modern Palestinolo-
pass through the city, has no proper name in the Bible;
neither has it in Arabic; it is conventionally known as
the Transverse Valley. A third valley begins outside
the Damascus Gate (Bab el Amoud) and descends
southward, with a slight deflection to the east, divid-
gists, who would locate Sion upon the northern de- ing the city in two, until it joins the Valley of Hinnom
clivity of the second of these hills, Mount Moria (II
Par., iu, 1), where stood the Temple of Jehovah.
(a) Mount Sion is bounded on the west by a valley which begins near the old pool called Birket MamiJla (see below, under D), about lOOOfeet to the north-west of the hill itself. This valley, following a sout li-easterly direction as far as the Jaffa Oate, the ancient gate of the gardens (Gennath) (Bell. Jud., V. iv, 2), then turns to the south and forms a great reservoir of water called the Birket es Sultan, by means of a massive
After passing the opening of the Transverse \'alley, it
forrns a gorge of some depth separating Mount Sion
from Mount Moria. Its rocky bed has been found by
the English engineers 69 feet below the actual surface
of the ground, near the Wailing Place, and 85 feet
from the south-west angle of the Temple. It en-
closes, towards its extremity, the Pool of Siloe, which
receives through a subterranean channel the waters of
the Virgin's Fountain that flow through the hollow of
Cedron. A little farther on, the valley has been
dam, which was rebuilt in the twelfth and the six- dammed with a wall 233 feet in length, which, retain-
teenth centuries. This is the Fountain of the Dragon ing the whole rainfall of the valley, formed the reser-
(tannin) which Nehemias came to when he went out voir called by Nehemias " the king's pool" (in D. V.,
of the city liy the western gate (D. V., " dragon foun- "the king's aqueduct ", II Esd., ii, 14). In Scripture
tain'MIEsd., ii,i:j).
Jo.sephus calls it the
Pool of the Serpent
(Bell. Jud., V, iii, 2);
the Hebrew word
tannin signifies both
"dragon" and "ser-
pent". This valley is
called by the natives
Wadi Rababi ; in the
Bible it goes by the
name of Ge Hinnom,
or Ge Ben Hinnom,
" Valley of Ennom "
(in A. v., Hinnom) or
" of the son of En-
nom " — an unknown
personage (Jos., xv,
8; xviii, 16; II Esd.,
xi, 30; Jer., xix, 2).
Below the Birket es
Sultan, it turns to
the east, passes be-
low Haceldama
(q. v.), and connects
with the Valley of
The Garden of Gethsemani
this valley figures
under the name of
lyahal, "ravine", or
"torrent of winter"
(II Esd., ii, 15). Jo-
sephus in one place
designates it ' ' the
wide valley " (Bell.
Jud., V, iv, 1), and
the Arabs call it sim-
ply El Wad, "the
valley". Inworkson
the Holy Land it also
bears the designation
of "the central val-
ley".
Surrounded on all sides by these deep ravines. Mount Sion presents a quadrilat- eral surface measur- ing about 2600 feet from north to south and 2000 feet from east to west. It is the largest of the hills of
Cedron. At the junction of the two valleys are the Jerusalem, the highest, and the only one completely
rich plantations forming "the king's garden" (or, in isolated. Its highest point reaches an altitude of 2558
D. v.," the king's guard ")nientioned in IV Kings, XXV, feet, and rises 531 feet above its base at the south-
4; Jer., xxxix, 4; II Esd.. iii, 15. Also at the mouth eastern angle. Its surface is considerably varied,
of the Valley of Hinnom is situated Topheth, the high being, indeed, divided by a small depression which
place where Achaz and Manasses set up the worship of branches off from the middle of the Transverse Valley
Baal-Moloch (II Par., xxviii, 3; xxxiii, 6). The good and descends obliquely to the Pool of Siloe. Mount
King Josias defiled this execrable place, scattering Sion thus consists of two lofty connected plateaux, one
human bones over it (II Par., xxxiv, 3-5), in spite of (the lower) stretchingwestward,theother (the shorter)
which Joakim restored there the infamous worship of to the north-west. The former is fairly imiform and
Moloch. From the unholy fires which were kept burn- measures 2300 feet in length from uorth to south, and
ing there for nearly a century and a half — those fires 920 feet in breadth. After sinking about 100 feet
through which the apostate Jews caused their children towards the north-west, the groimd rises about 20 feet
to pass, in order to con.secrate, or immolate, them to and forms a rounded eminence opposite to the Temple,
Moloch — Ge Hinnom (in Aramaic, Gehenanm) re- terminating in a precipice 195 feet above the former
ceived the name of Thyva toD wvpds, " Gehenna of the bed of El Wad
Fire", and became the emblem of hell (in Greek text.
Matt., V, 22, 29, 30; Mark, ix, 43, 45). The Valley
of Cedron, from Hinnom as far as the Dead Sea,
is still called Wadi en Nar, "Valley of Fire".
On the north. Mount Sion is bounded by a valley.
(b) Mount Moria, or the Eastern Hill, is a narrow
promontory connected with Mount IVzctha, the high-
est point of which is the Hill of Jeremias, with an alti-
tude of 2556 feet. This tongue of land terminates on
the south in a point near the Pool of Siloe; El Wad
riow largely filled in, which goes down in a straight enclosesit on its western side, and the Valley of Cedron
line from the .Jaffa Gate eastward to the foot of Mount on its eastern. Upon its highest crest (2443 feet) was
Moria. On the slope of this valley is a large reservoir the <lomain of Oman (Areuna). the .Jebusite, where
called in Arabic Birket Hammam el Batrak. " Pool of Solomon l>uilt the Temple and his palaces. This is the
the Baths of the Patriarch", and in the itineraries of .summit called Moria; south of the royal quarter, the
the pilgrims "Pool of Ezechias". Josephus calls it hill (2300 to 20.50 feet) bears the naiiic «{ Ophel (II
Amygdalon, a name which, acconling to Conder, may Par., xxvii, 3). Cedron, which, since the third cen-
with good reason be derived from kam migdahn, tury after Christ, has also been called the \'alley of
