From the Elder's Pen "Jerusalem" 6/01/03 Past/Future Articles

 This city, remarkable for its situation, is about 3,500 feet above the level of the Dead Sea.  It lies between rocky ravines, flanked on the east by the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and on the west and south by the Valley of Hinnom.  It was spread out over four hills, Zion, Moriah, Acra, Bezetha, the chief of which was Zion.  Upon Moriah Solomon built the Temple, and between that hill and Zion ran the Tyropoeon valley.
 Mount Zion, the most conspicuous of these hills, rises from the Valley of Hinnom to the height of nearly three hundred feet.  On this mount stood the palace of David.  It was here that he placed the Tabernacle.
 The mountains round about on all sides rise above the city as noted by the psalmist: “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem.”  The most celebrated of these is the Mount of Olives on the western slope of which is the Garden of Gethsemane.  With this mount are associated some of the great scenes in the life of our Lord.
 No other city, perhaps, has undergone so many great seiges and as a result, the valleys have been filled with rubbish and ruined buildings.  When the traveler walks through and about Jerusalem of today, it is not the same as the city of two thousand years ago.
 Jerusalem was a natural stronghold, easy to defend from within and difficult to take from without.  So confidently did the Jebusites rest in their security that they taunted David by telling him that blind men and cripples could hold the city against his attacks.  It was most favorably located surrounded by the hills and valleys.  Set down in the midst of them upon its own hills, how truly could the psalmist say, “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King” (Psalms 48:2).  It was called the city of David, but a greater than David, was to immortalize it and impart to it its lasting distinction.
 We cannot over-estimate the importance of taking Jerusalem.  In Jerusalem, also, the nation would be centralized religiously, as it was in the time of David and more especially in the reign of Solomon in the erection of the Temple.  Nothing could have been more effective in uniting the tribes than the capture of Jerusalem and in making it the capital of the country.  This city was destined to pass through scenes never experienced by any other city in human history.