Mount Zion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other places with the same name, see Mount Zion (disambiguation).

Pope's Way, leading to Mount Zion

Mount Zion (Hebrew: הר צִיּוֹן‎, Har Tsion; Arabic: جبل صهيون‎, "Jabel Sahyoun") is an elevation west of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Jewish scriptures apply the term "Mount Zion" to the Temple Mount or the City of David, both located on this elevation. For Jews the term "Zion" became a synecdoche referring to the entire city of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.

[show]

[edit] Change in meaning

Later the name became associated with a hill just outside the walls of the Old City, at the southern end of that elevation. The identification dates from the Middle Ages.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

Between 1948 and 1967, when the Old City was under Jordanian rule, Israelis were forbidden access to the Jewish holy places. Mount Zion was a designated no-man's land between Israel and Jordan.^[1] Mount Zion was the closest accessible site to the ancient Jewish Temple. Until East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War, Israelis would climb to the rooftop of David's Tomb to pray.^[2] The winding road leading up to Mount Zion is known as Pope's Way (Derekh Ha'apifyor). It was paved in honor of the historic visit to Jerusalem of Pope Paul VI in 1964.^[3]

[edit] Legends

According to local legend, the two engineers who planned the restoration of the Old City walls in 1538 mistakenly left Mt. Zion and King David’s tomb outside the walls. The Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, was so enraged that he had the two put to death.^[4]

[edit] Landmarks

Important sites on Mount Zion are Dormition Abbey, King David's Tomb and the Room of the Last Supper. Most historians and archeologists today do not regard "David's Tomb" there to be the actual burial place of King David. The Chamber of the Holocaust (Martef HaShoah), the precursor of Yad Vashem, is also located on Mount Zion. Another place of interest is the Catholic cemetery where Oskar Schindler, a Righteous Gentile who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews in the Holocaust, is buried.^[5] Notable burials in the Protestant cemetery on Mt. Zion include the architect Conrad Schick.