Towards the end of the First Temple period, the city expanded westward. Just before the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, Josephus described Mount Zion as a hill across the city's central valley to the west. This indicates that the western hill by then had come to be known as Mount Zion, and this has been the case ever since. It must however be said that Josephus never used the name Mount Zion in any of his writings, but described the Citadel of king David as being situated on the higher and longer hill, thus pointing at the Western Hill as what the Bible calls Mount Zion.