Hananel, the Tower of

ban'-an-el (chanan'el, "El (God) is gracious"; the King James Version Hananeel, ha-nan'e-el): A tower in the walls of Jerusalem adjoining (Ne 3:1; 12:39) the tower of HAMMEAH (which see). The company of Levites coming from the West passed "by the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of Hammeah, even unto the sheep gate" (Ne 12:39). In Jer 31:38 it is foretold "that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel unto the gate of the corner"--apparently the whole stretch of North wall. In Zec 14:10 it says Jerusalem "shall dwell in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel unto the king's winepresses." These last were probably near Siloam, and the distance "from the tower of Hananel unto the king's winepresses" describes the greatest length of the city from North to South. All the indications point to a tower, close to the tower of Hammeah, near the Northeast corner, a point of the city always requiring special fortification and later the sites successively of the Baris and of the Antonia.

See JERUSALEM.

E. W. G. Masterman