The Mount of Olives during biblical times was covered with ancient olive trees, and is one mountain north of Mt. Zion with breathtaking views of the Old City, the City of David, and the Kidron Valley. It was there that Jesus encouraged His disciples and gave them their instructions after He would be crucified (Matthew 24). Jesus spent the night there before his arrest, in the gardens at Gethsemane. It was on this mount where He wept over Jerusalem. 

“When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it.” Luke 19:41

During the time of the First and Second Temples, the Mount of Olives was the place where the high priest used to slaughter and burn the 'Red Cow', whose ashes purify those who are impure at the Temple. The Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery began during the period of the First Temple, however the tombs that are there today are from the 16th century and on. Many people desire to be buried on the Mount of Olives where the Messiah is expected to arrive.

“In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.” Zechariah 14:4

This is an important place to consider that this mount is not only a geographical link between the desert and the fertile hills of Jerusalem; it is also the spiritual link between heaven and earth or life and death.

Just below the Mount of Olives, close to the Church of all Nations, there is the place where Christian tradition says that Mary, the mother or Jesus was buried. The Church of all Nations is a Roman Catholic Church where it is believed that Jesus prayed before his arrest. At the bottom of the Mount of Olives is an ancient olive garden. Olive trees do not have rings and so their age cannot be precisely determined, but scholars estimate their age to be anywhere between one and two thousand years old.