Mount Hazor ( he, רמת חָצוֹר, translit=Ramat Hazor) is an irregularly shaped
plateau
In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...
, marking the geographical boundary between
Samaria
Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first ...
to its north and
Judea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous sou ...
to its south. Its peak,
Ba'al Hazor (Arabic: Tall Asur), identified with the biblical
Baal-hazor Baal-hazor ( he, בַּעַל חָצוֹר, link=, lit=Baal's village) is a place on the border of Ephraim and Benjamin where Absalom held the feast of sheep-shearing when Amnon was assassinated, according to . It is probably identical with Hazor me ...
, reaches approximately above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...
.
Its name is derived from the word for "courtyard", referring to the walled enclosures that this large land mass enabled ancients to construct. These enclosures served as seasonal
pen
A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...
s for sheep that were brought there for
shearing
Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...
, which was accompanied with a festive gathering.
The peak housed a
pagan shrine for worship of a
Baal
Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied t ...
(deity) who was considered "lord of the mountain", hence its name: "Baal-hazor".
The
Genesis Apocryphon
The Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20), also called the Tales of the Patriarchs or the Apocalypse of Lamech and labeled 1QapGen, is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1946 by Bedouin shepherds in Cave 1 near Qumran, a city in the nor ...
of the
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...
identifies Ramat Hazor as the site between
Bethel and
Ai where
Abraham
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...
built an altar and invoked the name of God (). At this site the accounts of took place:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hazor
Mountains of the West Bank
Hebrew Bible mountains