There can be no doubt that one of the southern peaks of Hermon was the scene of the Trans figuration. Our Lord travelled from Bethsaida on the north-east shore of the Sea of Galilee, to the coasts of Cxsarea-Philippi.' Thence he led his disciples into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them ;' and afterwards he returned, going towards Jerusalem through Galilee (comp. Mark viii. 22-28 ; Matt. xvi. 13 ; Mark ix. 2-13, 3o-33). No other mountain in Palestine seems so appropriate to the circumstances of that glorious scene. For many centuries a monkish tradition assigned this honour to Tabor (Robinson, B. ii. 35S) ; but it is now restored to its proper locality, and will give additional celebrity to the prince of Syrian mountains (Porter's Damascus, i. 306 ; Stanley, S. and P., 392).
Hermon is, both physically and politically, a giand central point in the geography of Syria and Palestine. From it radiate all the most noted rivers—the Jordan, whose fountains are fed by its eternal snows ; the Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus ;' the Orontes, which swept past the walls of the classic and Christian' Antioch ; and the Leontes. All the great ancient kingdoms in the country also converged at Hermon—Bashan, Damascus, Phceuicia, Israel. And Hermon was the religious centre of primeval Syria. Its Baal sanctuaries not only existed, but gave it a name, before the Exodus (Josh. xi. 17). It retained its sacred character during the long rule of the Greeks and Romans ; and Jerome writes : Dicitur esse in vertice ejus insigne templum, quod ab ethnicis cultui habetur,' etc. (Onanzast., s. v. Aernion). Recent investigations have illustrated these historic statements in a remarkable manner. Round the whole base and sides of the mountain the ruins of many ancient temples have been discovered, and all of them pointing towards the central peak ! (Handbook for S. and P., p. 457). The writer of this article ascended Hermon in 1832, and found still existing on its highest summit the remains of the very temple referred to by Jerome ; and beside it the primeval fire-altar which gave to it, in ail probability, its Scriptural appellation, Baal-her man. Hermon has three summits. . . . On the second of these (overhanging tbe deep glen in which are the sources of the Pharpar) are curious and interesting ruins. Round a rock, which forms
the crest of the peak, are the foundations of a cir cular wall, composed of large stones, and within the circle are heaps of hewn stones, some of them bevelled, and others with a plain moulding round the edge. The foundations of a small temple can be made out. It stands on the brtnv of the moun tain, overhanging a long steep declivity. The ruins of this temple seem to be more recent than the stones of the ring' (Hana'boak for S. ana' P., ii. P. 454)• The ancient inhabitants of Canaan had their sacred places on the high mountains and the hills' (Deut. xii. 2 ; cf. 2 Kings xvii. IO, II). We need not wonder then that Hermon should have been selected for the erection of an altar and the burning of a sacred fire. The glorious view ob tained from it of the sun's course, florn his rising in the eastern desert to his setting in the great sea, would naturally mark it as the most fitting locality for his chief worship.
The lower slopes of Hermon, and the ranges that radiate from it are thinly clothed with oak forests, chiefly evergreen. The central peak is a naked obtuse cone of gray limestone, rising from 2000 to 3000 feet above the attached ridges. Dur ing the winter the peak is covered with snow, but in summer the snow gradually dissolves until only a few streaks remain on the summit. According to the measurement of Major Scott, Hermon has an elevation of 9376 feet, being 775 feet less than the highest peak of the Lebanon lange (Van de Velde, .111enzob-, pp. 17o, 176). It is thus the second mountain in Syria. During the summer months fleecy clouds cling round the top of Hermon when the whole heavens' arc elsewhere cloudless. The clew on and around the mountain is very abundant. One of its southern spurs is called Abu Natty, the father of dew.' In the spring of 1857, the writer encamped two nights at its base, and his tent was as completely saturated as if heavy rain had fallen. For fuller information the student may consult Porter, Da171aSCUS, i. pp. 279, sq. ; Robinson, B. R.,iii. 431, sq. ; Lynch, Expedztion to the Dead Sea ; Ritter, Pal. 211Zri Syr., ii. 152, sq.—J. L. P.