Zion 4.08

Zion, also transliterated Sion, Sayon, Syon, Tzion or Tsion, is a placename often used as a synonym for Jerusalem. The word is first found in which dates from c.630–540 BC according to modern scholarship. It commonly referred to a specific hill in Jerusalem, located to the south of Mount Moriah or the Temple Mount, on which stood a Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was named the City of David. The hill is one of the many squat hills that form Jerusalem, to include the Mount of Olives etc. In the past many centuries, that was the only section of Jerusalem inside city wall that was the Jewish quarter.The term Tzion came to designate the area of Jerusalem where the fortress stood, and later became a metonym for Solomon's Temple, the city of Jerusalem and "the World to Come", the Jewish understanding of the afterlife.In Kabbalah, the more esoteric reference is made to Tzion being the spiritual point from which reality emerges, located in the Holy of Holies of the First, Second and Third Temple.