Mt. Gerizim is considered the holiest place among the Samaritans. It was where their

temple was erected and, according to Samaritan tradition, it was the place that many

events related in the Bible occurred, such as the Sacrifice of Isaac (akedah) and the story

of Jacob's Ladder. Many years after the Samaritan temple was destroyed by the

Hasmoneans, Hadrian built a shrine to Zeus. In the Byzantine period a Christian church

was constructed there. Nevertheless, the Samaritans never lost the hope of returning to

worship on Mt. Gerizim and their prayers were directed there just as the Jews directed,

in a similar hope, their prayers to Jerusalem.

This hope is expressed in Samaritan art through temple objects, as with the Jews, and

also through representations of the temple on Mt. Gerizim. In these depictions a building

is seen at the top of the mountain to which a flight of stairs lead. Sometimes the stairway

is located in a forest and there is a hut for resting. Archaeological excavations on the site

show that these depictions accord with the topography of the area. During the Byzantine

period, the Samaritans represented their destroyed temple in the likeness of the shrine to

Zeus with its flight of stairs.