Topography of Jerusalem

Jerusalem sits atop the watershed between the wooded Judean hills and fertile lowlands (Shefelah) to the west, and the barren wilderness of Judea (Judean desert) to the east, at an elevation of 800 meters above sea level, compared with the Dead Sea at 400 meters below sea level. The landscape provides a dramatic setting for this holy city, which is powerful and inspiring because of its starkness rather than its natural beauty. The first people who settled Jerusalem some 5,000 years ago were attracted to this spot for more prosaic reasons – specifically, by water. Jerusalem's earliest settlement was located on a small hill that forms a spur to the south of the Temple Mount (in Hebrew, har ha-bayit; in Arabic, al-haram al-sharif, which means the Noble Enclosure or Sacred Enclosure), the great esplanade (open platform) in the southeast corner of the modern Old City. This small hill came to be known by several names: the City of David; the eastern hill; and the lower city. Despite its size (only about 11 acres) and relatively low elevation, Jerusalem's first inhabitants settled on this hill because of its proximity to the only perennial source of fresh water in the area: the Gihon spring, which gushes forth at the foot of the eastern slope of the City of David. The City of David offered early inhabitants the additional advantage of natural protection, consisting of the Kidron Valley to the east and, to the west, the Tyropoeon [pronounced tie-rho-PEE-un] Valley (an ancient Greek name meaning the “Valley of the Cheesemakers”; it is sometimes also called the Central Valley because it begins at the modern Damascus Gate and runs south through the center of the Old City today). The Kidron and Tyropoeon valleys meet at the southern tip of the City of David. The Mount of Olives, which is the highest mountain ridge in Jerusalem, rises to the east of the Kidron Valley before dropping steeply down toward the Dead Sea further to the east. The configuration of bedrock in the City of David is such that the bedrock is lowest at the southern tip and rises steadily toward the north, culminating in a rocky outcrop that eventually became the Temple Mount.