Sunday, August 30, 2026 Search My Trip EnglishChinese
World news · travel · culture
Taiwan The Taiwan Times
Taiwan's window to the world

Gehenna

Jerusalem, Israel

Gehenna (ghi-HEN-ə, Ancient, Géenna) or Gehinnom (Gēʾ ḇen-Hīnnōm or, Gē-Hīnnōm, 'Valley of Hinnom') is a Biblical toponym that has acquired various theological connotations, including as a place of divine punishment, in Jewish eschatology. The place is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as part of the border between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8). According to the Bible, during the late First Temple period, it was the site of the Tophet, where some of the kings of Judah had sacrificed their children by fire (Jeremiah 7:31).. Thereafter, it was cursed by the biblical prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 19:2–6). In later rabbinic literature, "Gehinnom" became associated with divine punishment as the destination of the wicked for the atonement of their sins. The term is different from the more neutral term Sheol, the abode of the dead. The King James Version of the Bible translates both with the Anglo-Saxon word hell.

Cemetery data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

Other cemeteries in Israel