TYROPOEON. - Name given by Fl. Giuseppe (Antiq. Ind., V, 4, 1: ἡ τῶν τυροποιῶν φάραγξ “valley of the cheesemakers”) to the valley which in his time divided the hill of the upper city from that Gerusalemme (v.), today called by the Arabs el-wād (“the valley”), and which descends from the Damascus Gate as far as the fountain of Siloe, where it joins the valleys of Cedron and Hinnom.
In antiquity the T. formed the western boundary of the Canaanite city of Gerusalemme, later occupied by David and Salomone, confined Ophel (v.); and quite a few Palestinian scholars hold that its original name was Gè Ben Hinnóm, namely that of the “valley” which, from south to north, along “the side of the Jebusite, that is, Gerusalemme,” marked the boundaries of the tribes of Giuda and Beniamin (Ios. 15, 8; 18, 16). Later, when the city expanded over the western hill, the old geographical name of Gè Ben Hinnóm would have come to designate the valley (v. GEHENNA), today er-Rabâhl, which surrounds the upper city to the west, on the western hill. This exegetical and topographical interpretation, however, remains controversial.