Near the spine of the Judaean mountains is Jerusalem, at the head of the Kidron Valley where flowed a perennial stream the Nahal (river) Kidron until circa 500 b. c., which descends 4,000 feet coursing into the Dead Sea near Jericho, and just to the west of Jerusalem, the headwaters of the Sorek river flowing west into the Mediterranean, past Beit Shemesh (20 miles west of Jerusalem) named for Shem who was Melchizedek the high priest of Canaanite fortress city Zion (later become Jerusalem in king David’s day), Shem made the sun god Shemesh by the Canaanites, the same worshipped at Sham i Bala (Shambhala).
