BETHESDA  , an

urban district of Carnarvonshire, N . Wales, 5 M. from Bangor, by a branch of the London & North-Western railway . Pop . (1901) 5281 . It lies near the lower end of the fine Nant Ffrancon (valley of the Ogwen stream) . The scriptural name is due, as often in Wales, to the village or hamlet taking its title from the Nonconformist church . Here are extensive slate quarries belonging to Lord Penrhyn . A narrow-gauge railway connects these with Port Penrhyn, at the mouth of the stream Cegid (hemlock, " cicuta "), which admits the entry of vessels of 300 tons to the quay at low water . BETH-HORON (" the place of the hollow way "), the name of two neighbouring villages, upper and lower Beth-horon, on the ascent from the coast plain of Palestine to the high tableland of Benjamin, which was until the 16th century the high road from Jerusalem to the sea . The two towns thus played a conspicuous part in Israelitish military history (see Josh. x. to; 1 Sam. xiii . 18; 1 Kings ix . 17; 1 Mace. iii .

13-24, vii . 39 if., ix . 50) .

Josephus (Bell . Jud. ii . 19) tells of the rout of a Roman army under Cestius Gallus in A.D . 66 . The Talmud states that many rabbis were born in the place . It is now represented by Beit 'Ur-el-foka and Beit 'Ur-et-tahta .