<P> The "Mount Zion" mentioned in the later parts of the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 60: 14), in the Book of Psalms, and the First Book of Maccabees (c. 2nd century BCE) seems to refer to the top of the hill, generally known as the Temple Mount . </P> <P> The last shift of the name Mount Zion was to the Western Hill, which is more dominant than the Eastern Hill and seemed to first - century CE Jerusalemites the worthier location for the by - then lost palace of King David . The Western Hill is what today is called Mount Zion . </P> <P> In the second half of the First Temple period, the city expanded westward and its defensive walls were extended to include the entire Western Hill behind them . Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the city almost completely around 586 BCE, severing the continuity of historical memory . A long period of rebuilding followed, ending with Jerusalem's second total destruction at the hands of the Romans in 70 CE . Josephus, the first - century CE historian who knew the city as it was before this second catastrophic event, identified Mount Zion as being the Western Hill, separated from the lower, Eastern Hill, by what he calls the "Tyropoeon Valley". It must however be said that Josephus never used the name "Mount Zion" in any of his writings, but described the "Citadel" of King David as being situated on the higher and longer hill, thus pointing at the Western Hill as what the Bible calls Mount Zion . </P> <P> At the end of the Roman period, a synagogue was built at the entrance of the structure known as David's Tomb, probably based on the belief that David brought the Ark of the Covenant here from Beit Shemesh and Kiryat Ye'arim before the construction of the Temple . </P>

Are mount moriah and mount zion the same