HIGH PLACE, in the English version of the Old Testament, the literal translation of the Heb. _bamah_. This rendering is etymologically correct, as appears from the poetical use of the plural in such expressions as to ride, or stalk, or stand on the high places of the earth, the sea, the clouds, and from the corresponding usage in Assyrian; but in prose _bamah_ is always a place of worship. It has been surmised that it was so called because the places of worship were originally upon hill-tops, or that the _bamah_ was an artificial platform or mound, perhaps imitating the natural eminence which was the oldest holy place, but neither view is historically demonstrable. The development of the religious significance of the word took place probably not in Israel but among the Canaanites, from whom the Israelites, in taking possession of the holy places of the land, adopted the name also. In old Israel every town and village had its own place of sacrifice, and the common name for these places was _bamah_, which is synonymous with _mikdash_, holy place (Amos vii. 9; Isa. xvi. 12, &c.). From the Old Testament and from existing remains a good idea may be formed of the appearance of such a place of worship. It was often on the hill above the town, as at Ramah (I Sam. ix. 12-14); there was a stele (_massebah_), the seat of the deity, and a wooden post or pole (_asherah_), which marked the place as sacred and was itself an object of worship; there was a stone altar, often of considerable size and hewn out of the solid rock[1] or built of unhewn stones (Ex. xx. 25; see ALTAR), on which offerings were burnt (_mizbeh_, lit. "slaughter place"); a cistern for water, and perhaps low stone tables for dressing the victims; sometimes also a hall (_lishkah_) for the sacrificial feasts. Around these places the religion of the ancient Israelite centred; at festival seasons, or to make or fulfil a vow, he might journey to more famous sanctuaries at a distance from his home, but ordinarily the offerings which linked every side of his life to religion were paid at the _bamah_ of his own town. The building of royal temples in Jerusalem or in Samaria made no change in this respect; they simply took their place beside the older sanctuaries, such as Bethel, Dan, Gilgal, Beersheba, to which they were, indeed, inferior in repute.