ANCIENT JERUSALEM.
I. Names. The city of Jerusalem has been known by a different name during each of the most important periods of its varied history. 1. In the patriarchal age it was the seat of Melchizedek's priestly kingdom, and was known as Salem, properly pronounced Shalem. (Gen. 14:18; Psa. 76:2.) 2. During the Jebusite period it was known as Jebus. (Judges 19:10.) Probably at this time the full name was Jebus-shalem. 3. After the capture by David it received the name Jerusalem, properly Jeru-shalaim. The earliest instance of this name is in Judges 1:7, 8, where it may have been used by anticipation; or there may have been a change, for euphony, from Jebus-shalem to Jeru-shalem. The word means "possession of peace." The Greek form of this word is Hierosolyma. 4. It is called by the prophets by the poetical name of Ariel, "the lion of God." (Isa. 29:1.) 5. More than once in the Bible it is called "the holy city." (Matt. 4:5; 27:53.) 6. After its destruction by Titus, it was rebuilt by the emperor Ælius Hadrianus, A.D. 135, and named Ælia, or, in full, Ælia Capitolina, a name that it held until the year 536 A.D., when the ancient name Jerusalem again became prevalent. 7. It is now known to the Arabs as El Khuds, "the holy."
DAVID'S TOMB.
II. Location. The city of Jerusalem stands in latitude 31° 46´ 45´´ north, and longitude 35° 13´ 25´´ east of Greenwich, the observations being taken from the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This may have been outside the ancient wall, but was certainly near it. The city is 32 miles from the Mediterranean, 18 from the Dead Sea, 20 from Hebron, and 36 from Samaria; and its general elevation is about 2,500 feet above the level of the ocean.
III. Geologic Formation. "The vicinity of Jerusalem consists of strata of the Eocene and chalk formations, having a general dip down the watershed of about 10° east-southeast. The action of denudation has left patches of the various strata; but, generally speaking, the oldest are on the west. The upper part of the Olivet chain consists of a soft white limestone, with fossils and flint bands belonging to the Upper Chalk; beneath this are, first, a hard silicious chalk, with flint bands; second, a soft white limestone, much used in the ancient buildings of the city; third, a hard chalk, often pink and white in color, and then known as Santa Croce marble. The underlying beds belonging to the period of the Greensand are not visible, the lowest strata in the Kedron precipices belonging to the Lower Chalk epoch." (Encyclo. Britan.)