Jerusalem - Mount of Olives

Jerusalem - Mount of

Olives

‎The Mount of Olives. Its western slopes face Jerusalem, planted with remains of the ancient olive groves from which its name derives. The eastern slopes descend towards the Judean Desert. Here Jesus began his journey to Jerusalem, and from the mountaintop he ascended to heaven. In Jesus’ day beacon fires lit up all of Jerusalem from the mountaintop, where the pointed bell-tower of the Russian church, built in 1886 and called in Hebrew Tur Malka, meaning the King’s Mount, now stands.