The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills or the Hebron Mountains, are a mountain range in Israel and the West Bank where Jerusalem, Hebron and several other biblical cities are located. The mountains reach a height of 1,026 metres (3,366 ft). The Judean Mountains can be divided into a number of sub-regions, including the Mount Hebron ridge, the Jerusalem ridge and the Judean slopes.
View of the Judaean Mountains near Jerusalem
The Judean Hills viewed from the Dead Sea
View from hilltop overlooking Wadi es-Ṣur, an extension of the Elah Valley in Israel
View from Beit Meir in the Judaean Mountains
Hebron is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies 930 metres (3,050 ft) above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank, and the third-largest in the Palestinian territories, it had a population of 201,063 Palestinians in 2017, and seven hundred Jewish settlers concentrated on the outskirts of its Old City. It includes the Cave of the Patriarchs, which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions all designate as the burial site of three key patriarchal/matriarchal couples. The city is often considered one of the four holy cities in Judaism as well as in Islam.
Downtown Hebron
Excavations at Tel Rumeida
Samson removes gates of Gaza (left) and brings them to Mount Hebron (right). Strassburg (1160–1170), Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart
Cave of the Patriarchs