(Hebrew: garden, or garden land)
A mountain 9 miles southwest of Acre, frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, as fertile, blessed, beautiful. There was an altar on it long before the prophet Elias's time, and he, and Eliseus after him, resided there. Probably it was there he caused fire to come down from heaven. (4Kings 1), and there his sacrifice was consumed by fire from above, after the sacrifice of the prophets of the false god Baal had remained unconsumed, whereupon they were all put to death (3Kings 18). The Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel preserves the tradition that from the days of Elias and Eliseus there had always been a succession of hermits on Carmel, and that in the time of the Crusades they had organized themselves like the Western religious orders.