Various temples can be found in villages on the slopes of Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon's name has been related to the
Semitic root ḥrm, which means "
taboo" or "consecrated", as in Hebrew
ḥerem (in several contexts:
property,
priestly gift and
censure), and in the
Arabic term
al-ḥaram, which means "
sacred enclosure". The name
Hermon does not appear in texts prior to the Bible, but other names of the mountain (
Siryon and
Senir), which are mentioned in the Bible, appear in Bronze- and Iron-Age texts.
Execration texts in the Egyptian
execration texts from the 19th century BC,
šrynw (Siryon) is mentioned.
Epic of Gilgamesh The
Epic of Gilgamesh mentions that Mount Hermon split after Gilgamesh killed
Humbaba, the Guardian of the Cedar Forest. One translation of Tablet V states, "The ground split open with the heels of their feet, as they whirled around in circles Mt. Hermon and Lebanon split." One of the versions of the
Epic of Gilgamesh mentions
ša-ri-a ù la-ab-na-na – Siryon and Lebanon – as the place of
Anunnaki. This indicates
Amorite influence.
Hittite contract In the contract between
Muršili II and Duppi-Teššup of
Amurru, two of the mountains that appear among the gods that witness the alliance are Lebanon and Siryon (
šá-ri-ya-nu). The mountain or summit is referred to as Saphon in
Ugaritic texts where the palace of
Ba'al is located in a myth about
Attar.
Assyrian royal inscriptions In the royal inscriptions of
Shalmaneser III, Shalmaneser wrote that
Hazael fortified the peak of mount
sa-ni-ru (Senir In another part, Shalmaneser wrote that in his way from mount Lebanon to the cities of Hazael, he passed mount Saniru. The inscriptions of
Esarhaddon mention several times cedars and cypresses from the mountains Lebanon and Sirara as construction materials; Sirara may be a version of Siryon.
Hebrew Bible and apocrypha In
Deuteronomy 3:8–9 and
Joshua 12:1 and 13:11, Mount Hermon is depicted as the northern boundary of the
Amorite kingdom, which following the conquest by Joshua was awarded to the half-
tribe of Manasseh east of the
Jordan River. The
Hebrew Bible uses three names for Mount Hermon, stating in Deut 3:9 that "the Sidonians call Hermon
Siryon, while the Amorites call it
Senir", but elsewhere (1Chr 5:23) seems to distinguish between Senir and Hermon, probably using the names for two of the three peaks of the Hermon range, while in Psalm 42:6 the Hebrew text uses the plural form, Hermonim, possibly also a reference to the three peaks. The pair Siryon and Lebanon appears in
Psalm 29, which is considered by Scholars to have Canaanite origin or roots. The
Book of Chronicles mentions Mount Hermon as a place where Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel were the heads of their families (1 Chronicles 5:23-24). In
Psalm 42, which leads the Psalms of the northern kingdom, the Psalmist remembers God from the land of Jordan and the Hermonites. In
Song of Songs 4:8, Hermon is an instance of an exotic locale, and
Psalm 133, one of the
Songs of Ascents, makes specific reference to the abundant
dew formation upon Mount Hermon. The
Book of Ezekiel (27:5), meanwhile, praises its cypresses (referring to it by its alternate name, Senir (cf. Deut. 3:9)). In the
apocryphal Book of Enoch, Mount Hermon is the place where the
Watcher class of
fallen angels descended to Earth. They swear upon the mountain that they would take wives among the daughters of men and take mutual imprecation for their sin (
Enoch 6). According to the controversial research by Professor
Israel Knohl of the Hebrew University, in his book
Hashem, Mount Hermon is actually the
Mount Sinai mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, with the biblical story reminiscent of an ancient battle of the northern tribes with the Egyptians somewhere in the Jordan Valley or Golan Heights.
New Testament R.T. France, in his book on the
Gospel of Matthew, noted that Mount Hermon was a possible location of the
Transfiguration of Jesus, just as it has elsewhere been described as the site accepted by most scholars.
Qasr Antar inscription and Hermon as the "mountain of oath" There is a sacred building made of hewn blocks of stone on the summit of Mount Hermon. Known as
Qasr Antar, it is the highest temple of the ancient world and was documented by
Sir Charles Warren in 1869. An inscription on a
limestone stele recovered by Warren from Qasr Antar was translated by George Nickelsburg to read "According to the command of the greatest a(nd) Holy God, those who take an oath (proceed) from here." Nickelsburg connected the inscription with the oath taken by the
angels under
Semjaza who took an
oath together, bound by a
curse, in order to take human wives in the Book of Enoch (
1 Enoch 6:6). Hermon was said to have become known as "the mountain of oath" by
Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau. The name of
God was supposed to be a
Hellenized version of
Baʿal or
Hadad and Nickelsburg connected it with the place name of
Baal-Hermon (Lord of Hermon) and the deity given by
Enoch as "The Great Holy One".
Deir El Aachayer Roman temple Another
Greek inscription found in a large
temple at
Deir El Aachayer on the northern slopes notes the year that a bench was installed "in the year 242, under
Beeliabos, also called
Diototos, son of
Abedanos, high priest of the gods of
Kiboreia". The era of the gods of Kiboreia is not certain, nor is their location, which is not conclusively to be identified with Deir al-Achayer, but was possibly the Roman sanctuary or the name of a settlement in the area.
Religious importance in the Late Roman period Eusebius recognized the religious importance of Hermon in his work
Onomasticon (probably written in the first quarter of the 4th century), saying "Until today, the mount in front of
Banias and Lebanon is known as Hermon and it is respected by nations as a sanctuary." ==Climate==