Mt. Zion

[By Grace]

Is Mt. Zion a real place in Israel, or is it just symbolic of the heavenly Jerusalem?

TIA,

[Shimshon]

Yes, Mout Tziyon is just south of the Temple mount (Mount Moriah). It was the city David conquored before there ever was a Temple. It was occupied by the Yevusites. It was were the ark was moved to from Shilo. The City of David. Tziyon, Yerushalayim.

You can read more about it here;

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/jerdavid.html

[By Grace]

Thanks, P4I and Shimshon. So was Zion a fortress, mountain, or city? Or all of the above?

[Shimshon]

Thanks, P4I and Shimshon. So was Zion a fortress, mountain, or city? Or all of the above?
Baruch haba :) Yes it was all three. A city on a hill built by the Yevusi as a fortress and conquored by King David.

The fact that Tziyon was on a hill made it a prime position for a city and a fortress. This was David's thinking as well and one main reason he desired to attain it.

[By Grace]

Thanks again, Shimshon. I also found this information:

Many who repeat these soul-stirring Hebrew verses form but a faint conception of their full force. But to those who are familiar with the natural features of the district they possess peculiar power and beauty. Mount Zion sometimes stands for the one hill on the south-western quarter of Jerusalem, now partly within and partly without the walls, which in ancient times, however, entirely encircled its summit; and sometimes for the whole site of the city, consisting of the seven hills on which it was situated, namely, Mount Zion, Mount Acra, Mount Ophel, Mount Moriah, Mount Gareb, and Mount Goath.1 In this latter sense, Mount Zion, as the largest, most anciently inhabited, and most important part of Jerusalem, stands, by a figure of speech, for the whole of the triple-walled metropolis of Palestine. Whether we confine it to the single mountain in question, or regard it as spoken of all the seven hills enclosed by the three walls of the ancient city, Mount Zion would convey to the mind of an Israelite a very grand representation.

[Sephania]

Just don't ever confuse it with Mt. Sion, some translate this as the same thing. It is a deception.

[visionary]

I have often thought that Mount Zion was event that is to happen which would take place at Jerusalem and but will be the spiritual experience of Mount Sinai.