The Kidron Valley

נַחַל קִדְרוֹן

Where is the Kidron Valley? Between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. I mark it certain.

David crossed the Kidron fleeing his son Absalom while the whole countryside wept. Then he climbed the Mount of Olives barefoot and weeping.

By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker

Site today: Between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives
How sure: Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
Other names: Brook Kidron, Kedron, Nahal Kidron, Wadi en-Nar, Valley of Jehoshaphat
Location: 31.7213° N, 35.3150° E (Google Maps)

The Kidron Valley on the hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel — Kidron on our hand-drawn Map of Biblical Israel. Get the full map as a print →

How we know where it was

There is nothing to search for here. Only one valley separates the city and the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives, and this is it. The Gihon Spring, Jerusalem's water source, lies in it.

The Kidron was the city's edge. Solomon told Shimei that the day he crossed it, he would die. Kings Asa, Hezekiah and Josiah carried idols out and burned or dumped them here, outside the holy city. Rock-cut tombs like Absalom's Pillar show it was a burial ground too. Josephus and Eusebius both identify the valley.

Visiting today

You can walk the valley from the City of David past the Gihon Spring, Absalom's Pillar and the Tomb of Zechariah. Farther down, it cuts through the Judean Desert past the Mar Saba monastery.