More From Jerusalem: The Mount Of Olives

The Mount of Olives is a steep mountain ridge to the east of the Old City in Jerusalem.  It gets its name from the olive trees that line its slopes. 

According to the Book of Zechariah, the mount is the place where the Lord will begin to redeem the dead on the Day of Judgment.  For this reason, Jews have long sought to be buried here and the mount has been used as a Jewish cemetery since biblical times.  The site contains some 150,000 graves, and among those interred are the prophet Zechariah himself; the medieval sage Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura; Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of modern Hebrew; and Prime Minister Menachem Begin and his wife Aliza.  During the period of Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, the site suffered considerable damage and many graves were desecrated.  The area has been painstaking restored and today offers plenty of history and spectacular views of the Old City. 

The Old City and the Mount of Olives are separated by a narrow valley called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which contains several notable ancient tombs.  One is "Absalom's Pillar," a monumental rock-cut tomb that towers over its visitors.  According to legend, this is the tomb of King David's rebellious son Absalom.  For centuries, it was the custom among passersby (Jews, Muslims and Christians) to throw stones at the tomb to express their disgust at the acts of a son who acted against his father.  So much so that the tomb was essentially covered by rocks until the site was cleared in the 1920s.  Recent scholarship, however, has attributed the tomb to the 1st century CE, about 1,000 years after Absalom's death.  Nonetheless, it's quite impressive and the mix of Greco-Roman and Egyptian architectural features makes for a unique landmark.

The Tomb of Zechariah is another large, imposing tomb carved out of solid rock.  The history of this tomb is a bit confusing.  This is not the same Zechariah as the one described above, who lived in the 6th century BCE and is reputedly buried in a cave tomb (the Tomb of the Prophets) higher up on the Mount of Olives.  Rather, this is the tomb of Zechariah Ben Jehoiada, who was stoned to death around the 9th century BCE for criticizing the King of Judea for forsaking the Lord.  To make matters more confounding, recent scholarship has dated the tomb to around the 1st century BCE, hundreds of years after Zechariah Ben Jehoiada's death.  But, as with Absalom's Pillar, the important thing is that it looks cool and it's really old.

The adjacent Tomb of Benei Hezir dates back to the 2nd century BCE.  The tomb houses a wealthy priestly family and is in the classical Greek style, with two simple columns carved right out of the rock face.  The image of these two ancient tombs standing side by side is a classic post card of Jerusalem.   

Absalom's Pillar, from above

Absalom's Pillar, from up close

Wish you were here:  Tombs of Zechariah (right) and Benei Hezir (left)

As you ascend from the valley floor up to the summit of the Mount of Olives (or if you're smart, as you take a bus to the top and then walk down), you encounter a series of historic churches.  The mount is a sacred place for Christians, who believe this is the place where Jesus was arrested and subsequently ascended to heaven.  There's the colorful facade of the Church of All Nations; the shiny gold domes of the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene (which has been featured on this blog on numerous occasions); the Russian Chapel of the Ascension (which is the tallest building on the mount); the Mosque of the Ascension (which is sometimes confusingly referred to as the Chapel of the Ascension because there was a church on the site before the Muslims took control after defeating the Crusaders);  the Church of the Pater Noster (with colored tiles of the Lord's Prayer in over 100 languages); the Evangelical Church of the Ascension (which reminded me of H.H. Richardson, an American architect who designed several buildings on the Harvard campus); and the small, modern Church of Dominus Flevit.  It's difficult to keep them all straight. 

Church of All Nations

Russian Church of Mary Magdalene

Church of Mary Magdalene, with cemetery, Old City walls, and Rockefeller Museum in the background

Russian Chapel of the Ascension, from afar

Russian Chapel of the Ascension, from up close

Evangelical Church of the Ascension

Evangelical Church of the Ascension

Mosque of the Ascension (aka Chapel of the Ascension)

It's another corner of Jerusalem that attracts visitors from all over the globe.  Indeed, I ran into tourists from every inhabited continent.  There were tour groups from the United States, Brazil, Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Russia, Kenya & Tanzania, the Philippines, South Korea, China, India, and several travelers from Australia.  The group from France was particularly intense, descending the hillside with a priest leading the way while preaching in a loud, mournful voice, followed by a man solemnly playing a guitar, several woman crying, and the whole group singing passionately.

As I alluded to above, in addition to its history and spirituality and its slew of beautiful monuments, the Mount of Olives offers another prime attraction:  incredible views of Jerusalem.  I found a solitary spot away from the tourist masses to sit down on a wall and take some pictures.  An elderly Arab gentlemen walked by, stopping to chat briefly and to point out in the distance to the King David Hotel, where Anwar Sadat stayed during his fateful trip to Israel in November 1977.  As he walked off, I was again alone to gaze at Jerusalem, for the last time during our four-and-a-half month stay in Israel.  I wondered, with a mix of trepidation and hope, what Jerusalem would look like 30 years from now.