Mount of Olives

MOWNT uv OL-ivz · Modern Mount of Olives, East Jerusalem

Mount of Olives is a mountain of the biblical world.

What is known

Where Jesus delivered the Olivet Discourse, his major teaching on the end times (Matthew 24-25; Mark 13)
Where Jesus wept over Jerusalem before his triumphal entry (Luke 19:41-44)
Site of Jesus's ascension into heaven forty days after the resurrection (Acts 1:9-12)

History

Founded: A ridge east of Jerusalem's Old City, used as a Jewish burial ground since the First Temple period
Population: N/A — a burial and pilgrimage site rather than a settlement
Coordinates: 31.7761° N, 35.2439° E

Archaeology

The ridge preserves an extensive necropolis spanning the First Temple period through the 1st century AD, including the monumentally carved "Tomb of Absalom," contemporary with the Gospel and Acts narratives. Thousands of rock-cut Second Temple-period tombs dot the slopes, and it remains an active Jewish cemetery today. The precise spot of the Ascension is marked by a Byzantine-era chapel, though its location is a later tradition rather than an archaeologically fixed point.

Absalom's Tomb at the foot of the Mount of Olives, dated stylistically to the 1st century BC/AD — source & licence

View of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives — source & licence

Scripture references

Matthew 24:3
Luke 19:37 — Approach to Jerusalem
Luke 19:41-44
Acts 1:9-12 — The Ascension

On a modern map

Mount of Olives today

Reflect

On this hillside Jesus prayed, 'not my will, but yours' — what would praying that honestly cost you today?

More places

Capstone Bible is a free interactive study app — a map of every place in this library, a zoomable timeline of biblical and church history, the Bible text with every name in it linked to its article, reading plans and personal notes.

Open Capstone Bible