HERMON  , the highest

mountain in Syria (estimated at 9050 to 9200 ft.), an outlier of the Anti-Lebanon . As the Hebrew name (iSe'^, " belonging to a sanctuary," " separate ") shows, it was always a sacred mountain . The Sidonians called it Sirion, and the Amorites Shenir (Deut. iii.9) . According to one theory it is the is Early English and later; the living was held by Nicholas " high mountain " near Caesarea Philippi, which was the scene of the Transfiguration (Mark ix . 2) . A curious reference in Enoch vi . 6, says that in the days of Jared the wicked angels descended on the summit of the mountain and named it Hermon . The modern name is Jebel es-Sheikh, or " mountain of the chief or elder." It is also called Jebel eth-Thelj, " snowy mountain." The ridge of Hermon, rising into a dome-shaped summit, is 20 M. long, extending north-east and south-west . The formation of the lower part is Nubian sandstone, that of the upper part is a hard dark-grey crystalline limestone belonging to the Neocomian period, and full of fossils . The spurs consist in some cases of white chalk covering the limestone, and on the south there are several basaltic outbreaks . The view from Hermon is very extensive, embracing all Lebanon and the plains east of Damascus, with Palestine as far as Carmel and Tabor . On a clear day Jaffa also may be seen .

The mountain in

spring is covered with snow, but in autumn there is occasionally none left, even in the ravines . To the height of 500 ft. it is clothed with oaks, poplars and brush, while luxuriant vineyards abound . Foxes, wolves and Syrian bears are not infrequently met with, and there is a heavy dew or night mist . Above the snow-limit the mountain is bare and covered with fine limestone shingle . The summit is a plateau from which three rocky knolls rise up, that on the west being the lowest, that on the south-east the highest . On the south slope of the latter are remains of a small temple or sacellum described by St Jerome . A semicircular dwarf wall of good masonry runs round this peak, and a trench excavated in the rock may perhaps indicate the site of an altar . On the plateau is a cave about 25 ft. sq. with the entrance on the east . A rock column supports the roof, and a building (possibly a Mithraeum) once stood above . Other small temples are found on the sides of Hermon, of which twelve in all have been explored . They face the east and are dated by architects about A.D . 200 .

The most remarkable are those of

Deir el 'Ashaiyir, Hibbariyeh, Hosn Niha and Tell Thatha . At the ruined town called Rukleh on the northern slopes are remains of a temple, the stones of which have been built into a church . A large medallion, 5 ft. in diameter, with a head supposed to represent the sun-god, is built into the wall . Several Greek inscriptions occur among these ruins . In the 12th century Psalm lxxxix . 12 was supposed to indicate the proximity of Hermon to Tabor . The conical hill immediately south of Tabor was thus named Little Hermon, and is still so called by some of the inhabitants of the district .