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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.