The Greek is κρανίον, “a skull.” The word “Calvary” is from the Latin Calvaria, having a like signification; agreeing also with the Hebrew GOLGOTHA, which has the same meaning (Matt. 27:3333And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, (Matthew 27:33); Luke 23:3333And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. (Luke 23:33)). The place where the Lord was crucified, and near to which the tomb was situated in which He was buried. The traditional site of the Holy Sepulcher is now well within the city of Jerusalem, and great efforts have been made to prove that this spot was at that time outside the city, but this is not at all credible. A much more probable place is that pointed out by the Jews on the north of the city, near the Grotto of Jeremiah. Visitors have declared that this site has, at a distance, the natural contour of a human skull. It would have been near the city yet outside it, and near also to where there could have been a garden, in which a tomb could have been cut. It is also a spot from whence the crucifixion could have been seen by the passers-by (on the road from the Damascus gate). This site has therefore several points in its favor. (See map accompanying Jerusalem.)
The actual place is however unknown; and doubtless God has so ordered it that it should not be made an object of idolatry, or turned into a holy shrine, over which there would have been great contention, as there has been, with bloodshed too, over the so-called Holy Sepulcher.
Calvary is not called a “hill” or “mount” in scripture, though often so designated in poetry, and as it was called by an early traveler known as the Bordeaux Pilgrim in A.D. 333.