Ophel in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
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What is Ophel?
O'PHEL
(hill, swelling), a hill of ancient Jerusalem. More accurately, it was the southern extremity of the hill on which the temple stood, and from whence the hill sunk gradually toward the surrounding valleys. It was enclosed and fortified by a wall, 2 Chr 27:3; 2 Chr 33:14; Neh 3:26-27; Jer 11:21, but it is now outside the walls of the city. The term has usually been understood to apply to the entire hill. Warren, however, suggests that Ophel was originally the designation of the palace which Solomon built, a building which in later reigns would command the Kedron valley by a wall at least 150 feet in height, increased to 200 feet by the building of the royal cloisters. The excavations of Warren exposed a wall 70 feet in height, which he supposes to have been Manasseh's, and in conjunction with it is a great tower built of drafted stones - perhaps that "which lieth without." Upward of 50 shafts were sunk about Ophel in search of the wall, and a line of wall was found to extend as far as 700 feet from the first tower in a south-easterly direction along the ridge of Ophel. There it ends abruptly. About 200 feet southward in the same line some massive walls were uncovered. On the eastern side of Ophel is the Fount of the Virgin, and below is the pool of Siloam. See Jerusalem.

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'ophel' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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