Mount Hermon: Where the Watchers Fell

Mount Hermon rises to 2,814 metres on the border between Lebanon and Syria. Snow covers its upper slopes for most of the year. In the Book of Enoch, it is the place where two hundred angels descended from heaven to earth.

The Watchers

The Book of Enoch, a Jewish apocalyptic text composed between roughly 300 and 200 BCE, names Mount Hermon as the site where a group of angels called the Watchers swore an oath and descended to the human world. Their leader was Shemyaza. They took human wives and produced offspring called the Nephilim. The Watchers taught humanity skills that the text presents as dangerous: metallurgy, weapons, cosmetics, astrology, and sorcery. God sent the flood to destroy the Nephilim.

The Mountain in Tradition

Mount Hermon appears throughout Near Eastern religious history. It was sacred to the Canaanites. A Roman temple to Baal stands near the summit. The mountain has been identified by some Christian traditions as the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus, though Mount Tabor is the more common candidate. In the Enochic tradition, the mountain is a boundary marker: the place where heaven and earth came too close.

Today

The mountain sits in a politically sensitive zone. The summit is controlled by Israel, which operates a military intelligence station there. The UN buffer zone runs along the slopes. Ski resorts operate on the Israeli-controlled side. The Roman temple ruins near the summit are accessible but not maintained.