Editing Mount Zion (section)

==The three different locations==
[[File:Jerusalem Tomb of David BW 1.JPG|thumb|150px|[[David's Tomb]] on Mount Zion]]

The name ''Mount Zion'' referred successively to three locations, as Jerusalemites preserved the time-honoured name, but shifted the location they venerated as the focal point of biblical Jerusalem to the site considered most appropriate in their own time.

===Lower Eastern Hill (City of David)===
At first, Mount Zion was the name given to the [[Jebusite]] fortified city on the lower part of ancient Jerusalem's Eastern Hill, also known as the [[City of David (historic)|City of David]].<ref name=Pixner/>

According to the [[Book of Samuel]], Mount Zion was the site of the Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion" that was conquered by [[King David]], then renamed and partially rebuilt by him as the "City of David", where he erected his [[David's Palace|palace]].<ref name=Pixner/>

===Upper Eastern Hill (Temple Mount)===
Once the [[Temple in Jerusalem#First or Solomon.27s Temple|First Temple]] was erected at the top of the Eastern Hill, the name "Mount Zion" migrated there too.<ref name=Pixner/>

After the conquest of the Jebusite city, its built-up area expanded northward towards the uppermost part of the same, Eastern Hill. This highest part became the site of [[Solomon's Temple]].

The identification of the pre-Israelite (Jebusite) and Israelite towns on the Eastern Hill is based on the existence of only one perennial water source in the area, the [[Gihon Spring]], and on archaeological excavations revealing sections of the Bronze Age and Iron Age city walls and water systems.<ref name=Pixner/><ref name=Harel193>{{cite book |title=This is Jerusalem |author=Menashe Harel |publisher=Canaan Publishing |location=Jerusalem |year=1977 |page=193 }}</ref>

The "Mount Zion" mentioned in the later parts of the [[Book of Isaiah]] ({{bibleverse|Isaiah|60:14}}), in the [[Book of Psalms]], and the [[First Book of Maccabees]] (c. 2nd century BCE; {{bibleverse|1 Maccabees|4:36-38}}) seems to refer to the top of the hill, generally known as the [[Temple Mount]].<ref name=Pixner/>

===Western Hill (today's Mount Zion)===
[[File:JerusalemTopography.png|thumb|Natural topography of the old city of Jerusalem and its surroundings]]

The last shift of the name Mount Zion was to the Western Hill, which is more dominant than the Eastern Hill and seemed to first-century CE Jerusalemites the worthier location for the by-then lost palace of King David. The Western Hill is what today is called Mount Zion.<ref name=Pixner>{{cite book |title=Paths of the Messiah |author=Bargil Pixner |editor=Rainer Riesner |editor-link=Rainer Riesner |others=Translated by Keith Myrick, Miriam Randall |publisher=Ignatius Press |year=2010 |pages=320–322 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bvhA6IE4VqgC&q=zion+canaanite&pg=PA321 |isbn=978-0-89870-865-3 }}</ref>

In the second half of the First Temple period, the city expanded westward and its defensive walls were extended to include the entire Western Hill behind them.<ref name=Harel272>{{cite book |title=This is Jerusalem |author=Menashe Harel |publisher=Canaan Publishing |location=Jerusalem |year=1977 |page=272 }}</ref> [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] destroyed the city almost completely around [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)|586 BCE]], severing the continuity of historical memory. A long period of rebuilding followed, ending with Jerusalem's second [[Siege of Jerusalem (AD 70)|total destruction]] at the hands of the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] in 70 CE. [[Josephus]], the first-century CE historian who knew the city as it was before this second catastrophic event, identified Mount Zion as being the Western Hill, separated from the lower, Eastern Hill, by what he calls the "[[Tyropoeon Valley]]".<ref name=Pixner/> It must however be said that Josephus never used the name "Mount Zion" in any of his writings, but described the "Citadel" of King David as being situated on the higher and longer hill, thus pointing at the Western Hill as what the Bible calls Mount Zion.<ref name="Wars">{{cite book |title=The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem |author= Flavius [[Josephus]] |publisher= [[Project Gutenberg]] |translator= [[William Whiston]] |quote= The city was built upon two hills, which are opposite to one another, and have a valley to divide them asunder; [...] Of these hills, that which contains the upper city is much higher, and in length more direct. Accordingly, it was called the "Citadel," by king David; [...] Now the Valley of the Cheesemongers, as it was called, and was that which we told you before distinguished the hill of the upper city from that of the lower,... (Book 5, Chapter 4, §1; or V:137) |url= http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2850/2850-h/2850-h.htm#link52HCH0004 |access-date= 19 February 2016 }}</ref><ref>''The genuine works of Flavius Josephus...'', translated by William Whiston, Havercamp edition, New York (1810). See footnote on page 83. ({{Google books|nc0vAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA83|online copy|page=83}})</ref>