Situation of Zion

Situation of Zion.

The exact situation of these early settlements has always been a matter of dispute. The author of I Macc. iv. 37 says expressly that the Temple was built upon Mt. Zion; and the presence of St. Mary's Well and the Siloam Pool seems to show that the natural position of the ancient fortress was upon the edge of the southeastern hill, where, as the excavations of Guthe and Bliss have shown, the level of the ground was much higher than at present. It is true that later tradition, both Jewish and Christian, agrees in placing Zion upon the southwestern hill; but even the latest attempts of Karl Rückert ("Die Lage des Berges Sion," Freiburg, 1898), Georg Gatt ("Sion in Jerusalem," Brixen, 1900, and "Zur Topographie Jerusalems," in "Z. D. P. V." xxv. 178), and C. Mommert ("Topographie des Alten Jerusalems," Leipsic, 1902) have not been successful in harmonizing this theory with the Biblical data. The theory is based chiefly upon (1) the direction of the old north wall, ending at the Haram, as described by Josephus ("B. J." v. 4, § 2), and south of which Zion must (?) have stood, and (2) the place of David's burial, which, according to tradition, is usually placed on the southwestern hill (see "Z. A. P. V." xxiv. 180-185).

There were only two natural water sources near Jerusalem, En-rogel and Gihon, respectively east and southeast of the city. The first (II Sam. xvii. 17; I Kings i. 9) has generally been identified withSt. Mary's, or the Virgin's, Spring, largely because the flight of steps running from the spring to Silwan is to-day called "ZaHwayleh," i.e., "Zoheleth" (I Kings l.c.). But the distance is too great; and the application of the term to these particular steps is not certain. En-rogel, according to tradition ("Ant." vii. 14, § 4), was in the king's garden; and Mitchell's identification of it with the Bir Ayyub is worthy of acceptance ("Jour. Bib. Lit." xxii. 108). The well Gihon (I Kings i. 33, 35, 38; II Chron. xxxii. 30, xxxiii. 14) is the so-called "Virgin's Spring." In addition, there were several pools: the "old pool" (Isa. xxii. 11), now called the Patriarch's Pool, northwest of the city; the "lower pool" (Isa. xxii. 9), now known as the Birkat al-Hamra; and the "upper pool" (ib. vii. 3, xxxvi. 2; II Kings xviii. 17), probably the Mamilla Pool, west of the Jaffa Gate, which fed the "old pool." In regard to the "Serpents' Pool," see below.

Jerusalem