KIDRON VALLEY

The Kidron Valley runs along the east side of Jerusalem separating the city from the Mount of Olives. A seasonal stream runs through this valley, but it is dry most months of the year. Nehemiah 2:15 mentions this valley as the place where he went that night to view the wall that needed rebuilding. There was a road that ran from Jerusalem across the Kidron over the Mount of Olives through Bethany and on to Jericho. There are tombs from the Herodian period to still be seen in the valley including that of St. James and the Tomb of Zecharias. We are told that David fled across this valley from Absalom in II Samuel 15:23. Jesus crossed it when He would go from Gethsemane to Jerusalem as recorded in John 18:1. On the west side of the Kidron Valley is the Spring Gihon, the source of water for the city. This is the spring tapped by Hezekiah and run through his famous tunnel before the Assyrians besieged Jerusalem. The Kidron Valley is thought to be the Valley of Jehoshaphat where the judgment will take place as described in Joel 3:2.

The Moslems also view this as the place of judgment. There are many Jewish and Moslem tombs in the valley awaiting the judgment they say. 

This picture was taken while standing on the Mount of Olives looking west across the city of Jerusalem.  Between the Mount of Olives and the Gold Dome of the Rock where the Temple once stood is the Kidron Valley (dividing the Mount of Olives from the walled city itself).