"A day of the Lord is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him..." (Zachariah 14).
Welcome to the prophecy of Zachariah... this is how Mt. of Olives looks like today:
It is the largest Jewish cemetery in the world, and a place where many famous Jews are buried since pre-Roman era. After the failed revolt in 135AD, Jews were not allowed to be buried here and the Nacropolis moved to Bet Shearim in the Galilee.
Mt. of Olives is also famous for being the place where Jesus spent his last days praying, crying over the destruction of Jerusalem and where he was captured and brought to trial. The mountain is filled with beautiful, ancient olive trees and churches overlooking the Temple Mount.
The Apsis in the Dominus Flevit church faces the Temple Mount.
The Russian Orthodox Maria Magdalene church and its golden crosses.
Dominos Flevit (The Lord Wept) church designed by Antonio Barluzzi in 1955.
The Gethsemane church (Church of All Nations) in the Kidron valley at the bottom of Mt. of Olives is where Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested.
The view from Mt. of Olives.
The Jerusalem cross on the door of Domunis Flevit.
The view from the garden of Dominus Flevit church.
It is a must-visit place and we visit it of course in all out tours.