Meah

Meah is a tower on the northern wall of Jerusalem, named only in Nehemiah. The Hebrew name is rendered by its meaning — "the tower of the Hundred" — and stands paired with the tower of Hananel between the sheep gate and the fish gate, both in the wall-rebuilding record and in the dedication procession.

A Tower on the Wall

The wall-building record places the tower in the section sanctified by Eliashib and the priests: "Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even to the tower of the Hundred they sanctified it, to the tower of Hananel" (Neh 3:1).

In the Dedication Procession

When the wall is dedicated, the procession passes the same landmark from the opposite direction, naming it again alongside the tower of Hananel: "and above the gate of Ephraim, and by the old gate, and by the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of the Hundred, even to the sheep gate: and they stood still in the gate of the guard" (Neh 12:39).

In both notices the tower is fixed by the same neighbors — the sheep gate at one end of its stretch, the tower of Hananel at the other — and otherwise unmentioned in scripture.