TYROPOEON. — The name given by Flavius Josephus (Antiquitates Judaicae, V, 4, 1: ἡ τῶν τυροποιῶν φάραγγες, “valley of the cheese-makers”) to the valley which in his time divided the hill of the upper city from that of the lower city of Jerusalem (v.), now called by the Arabs el-wād (“the valley”), which runs from the Damascus Gate down to the Pool of Siloam, where it joins the valleys of the Kedron and of Hinnom.
In antiquity the T. formed the western boundary of the Canaanite city of Jerusalem, later occupied by David and Solomon, which was restricted Ophel (v.). Not a few Palestinian scholars are of the opinion that its original name was Ge Ben Hinnom, that is, the “valley” which from south to north, along “the flank of the Jebusite, i.e., of Jerusalem,” marked the boundaries of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Josh. 15:8; 18:16). Later, when the city expanded onto the western hill, the old geographical name of Ge Ben Hinnom would have come to designate the valley (v. GEGENNA), now called er-Rabbî, which lies to the west of the upper city on the western hill. This interpretation, however, is still topographically controversial.