Mount of Olives Jerusalem: Gethsemane, Viewpoints and How to Visit

The ridge and its names

The Mount of Olives is a north-south ridge rising directly east of the Old City walls, separated from them by the Kidron valley. Its Hebrew name, Har ha-Zeitim, and its Arabic name, Jabal az-Zaytun, both mean Mount of Olives, a reference to the olive groves that once covered the slopes. The neighbourhood at the top, At-Tur, grew out of a village and takes its name from the Arabic word for the mountain.

Because the ridge faces the Temple Mount, known in Arabic as Haram al-Sharif (the plateau of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque), its summit gives the single most reproduced panorama of the Old City. Photographers come at opening time for the light and again before the churches close.

A burial ground for three millennia

The western slopes, the ones facing Jerusalem, have been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and hold approximately 150,000 graves. In Jewish tradition, burial on the mount was associated with the resurrection, which is why the hillside became so densely packed with tombs. The southern part of the ridge served as the necropolis of the elite of the ancient Kingdom of Judah, and their monumental rock-cut tombs still line the valley floor.

Practical point: the cemetery terraces are active burial ground and the paths down the slope cut through them. Walk the marked paths, keep your voice down, and do not step on graves. The stones are uneven, so wear shoes with grip.

Why Christians come

Several key events in the life of Jesus, as related in the Gospels, took place on the mount, and in the Acts of the Apostles it is described as the place from which Jesus ascended to heaven. That double association, with Jesus and with Mary, has made it a centre of Christian worship since ancient times and a major site of pilgrimage today. Each event now has its church, and the modern pilgrimage route runs downhill from summit to garden in roughly Gospel order: the Ascension at the top, the weeping of Jesus over the city at Dominus Flevit, the agony and arrest at Gethsemane at the bottom.

If you want the whole arc in context, the In the Footsteps of Jesus walking tour follows exactly that line and continues into the Old City.

Start at the top: Pater Noster and the Chapel of the Ascension

The Church of the Pater Noster stands near the summit over a cave identified with the teaching of the Lord's Prayer. Its courtyard walls are hung with ceramic panels of the prayer in well over a hundred languages, which is the detail people photograph. Entry costs $3.88 (12 NIS), students $3.24 (10 NIS). Hours are currently temporary, Tuesday and Thursday 09:00-12:00, and it is closed Sunday, so check before you build your day around it.

The Chapel of the Ascension, a short walk south, encloses a stone slab venerated as the point from which Jesus ascended to heaven. It opens 08:00-17:00 and entry is $1.62 (5 NIS). Both sites sit at the cool end of the ridge and get almost no shade, so start here early.

Down the slope: the viewpoint and Dominus Flevit

Between the summit churches and the valley, the path crosses the cemetery terraces and opens onto the classic view: the golden Dome of the Rock, the grey dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the whole walled rectangle of the Old City. Give this terrace fifteen minutes, because the view explains the geography of everything you will see afterwards in town.

A little further down is the Dominus Flevit church, its name Latin for the Lord wept, marking the spot where Jesus is said to have wept over Jerusalem. The teardrop-shaped chapel frames the city through its altar window, and during construction archaeologists uncovered finds from the Canaanite period and tombs from the Second Temple and Byzantine eras. It opens Mon-Thu and Sat 08:30-17:00, and Fri and Sun 08:30-11:50 and 14:00-17:00. Entry is included on the tours, a small fee if you come alone.

The bottom of the hill: Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations

At the foot of the slope, beside the Tomb of Mary, lies Gethsemane, the garden where, according to the four Gospels, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. Ancient olive trees still grow in the enclosed grove, and several adjacent church properties each hold their own small grove identified with biblical Gethsemane.

Next door stands the Church of All Nations, also called the Basilica of the Agony, a Catholic church built in the 1920s over a section of bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest. Hours are 07:30-18:00 April-September and 07:30-17:00 October-March, with last entry 10 minutes before closing. It is free. The Tomb of Mary, a Greek Orthodox crusader-era church reached by a wide staircase, opens 08:00-18:00. From here the Western Wall plaza is a short walk across the valley, which is how most people continue their day.

The cemetery descent

The walk from summit to garden takes most people 45 minutes to an hour with stops (our estimate), and the middle stretch runs through the burial terraces. This is not a detour, it is the historic landscape itself: roughly 150,000 graves stacked in tiers on the slope that faces the Temple Mount. Stay on the marked paths, dress as you would in any cemetery, and expect to share the narrow stairways with funeral parties.

The surface is loose stone in places, so this stretch is not suitable for wheelchairs, which the tours state plainly.

Hours that surprise people

Sunday is the trap. Dominus Flevit opens only 08:30-11:50 and 14:00-17:00 on Sundays, Pater Noster is currently closed on Sundays altogether, and the Russian Church of the Ascension closes Sunday too. A Sunday visit still works, because Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations open daily, but the summit churches may be shut.

Pater Noster also runs on temporary hours even midweek, Tuesday and Thursday 09:00-12:00 only. If seeing it matters, plan a Tuesday or Thursday morning, or accept it from the outside. The Church of All Nations is the most reliable anchor: 07:30-18:00 April to September, 07:30-17:00 October to March, last entry 10 minutes before closing, and it closes for a midday break around noon on Sundays. The Tomb of Mary opens 08:00-18:00 daily.

Dress and behaviour

Every site on the ridge is a working place of worship, so covered shoulders and knees are the safe standard everywhere on the mount. The garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations draw large pilgrim groups, and prayer inside the church takes priority over photography, so no flash and no raised voices near the bedrock altar.

The cemetery has its own etiquette. Do not sit on gravestones, do not take posed photographs against them, and give way to funeral processions on the paths. During Jewish holidays the slopes are busy with mourners and visitors, which is respectful traffic rather than tourist traffic.

When it is quiet

The garden and the Church of All Nations are calmest soon after the 07:30 opening, before the first coach groups arrive (our estimate). By mid-morning the lower church fills and the queue for the Tomb of Mary staircase builds. Mid-afternoon is the second good window, especially in winter when the church closes at 17:00 and the light on the Old City walls turns golden around 16:30.

Friday afternoons and Saturday are fine on the mount itself, unlike much of Jewish Jerusalem: churches here stay open through Shabbat, so this is a good best time to visit fallback if the rest of the city has shut for the weekend.

On foot from the Old City

The classic route leaves the Old City through Lions' Gate, crosses the Kidron valley past the ancient tombs, and climbs to the Church of All Nations and the garden of Gethsemane. From there you either stop or keep climbing the stairways through the cemetery to the summit. Budget about 20 to 25 minutes from Lions' Gate to the garden (our estimate), considerably more with the full climb.

Doing it this way means you see Gethsemane first and the view last, which is the reverse of the tour logic. If the climb worries you, walk it the other way round: start at the top in the cool of the morning and let gravity do the work, exactly as the Mount of Olives guided tour does.

By bus, taxi or tour

City buses run over the ridge from the city centre, stopping near the summit at At-Tur. Taxis and ride-hailing cars will drop you at the top for the downhill walk, which is the cheapest way to get the summit-to-garden direction without a guide. There is no light rail on the mount, and on Shabbat from Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall Israeli public transport stops entirely, so plan a walk or a pre-booked ride, as covered in our getting around guide.

The tours remove every one of these decisions. The Mount of Olives guided tour collects you at Jaffa Gate and drives up, and the two full-day options start with hotel pickup, which matters if you are short on time or visiting in summer heat.

Pairing it with the rest of the city

The mount fits naturally at the start of a day that continues into the Old City, because you end at the bottom of the valley beside the Western Wall. From there the City of David excavations are just south of Dung Gate, and the Via Dolorosa runs through the Muslim Quarter. If you are mapping a whole trip, our Jerusalem itinerary and the wider list of things to do in Jerusalem slot the mount into a longer plan.

• Wear grippy shoes, the cemetery paths are loose stone
• Carry water, the ridge has almost no shade
• Check Pater Noster's temporary hours the day before

The realistic timings

A quick visit is Gethsemane, the Church of All Nations and the Tomb of Mary at the bottom of the hill, about ninety minutes total (our estimate). That covers the sites most people mean by the Mount of Olives and pairs neatly with an afternoon in the Old City.

The full ridge, from the Chapel of the Ascension at the top down through Pater Noster, the viewpoint, Dominus Flevit and the garden, takes about half a day with stops. Add time for the view terrace, because on a clear day you can pick out the domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock from the same frame. In July and August, when afternoon highs average 30°C (86°F), start at 07:30 and be off the exposed summit by mid-morning.

When a tour is the better deal

If your Jerusalem stay is tight, a guided option saves the half day of logistics. The Mount of Olives guided tour compresses the whole ridge into 3.5 hours with the ride up included, and it ends you at Gethsemane in time to walk into the Old City for lunch.

If you want the mount and the Gospel route into the Old City without changing guides, the In the Footsteps of Jesus walking tour runs nine hours from hotel pickup down the slope and along the Via Dolorosa, which suits visitors making a single long day of Christian Jerusalem. And if the mount is one item on a longer list, the full-day city tour folds Gethsemane into a ten-hour circuit of the whole city with entry fees included. For a private alternative, our Jerusalem private tours page lists guides who will set the pace with you.

A note on pacing downhill

Downhill sounds easy and is not. The path from summit to garden drops steeply through the cemetery on uneven steps, and knees feel it on the way down more than up. Take the terrace breaks the route offers, and if anyone in your group struggles with steps, choose the routing that stops at the bottom sites and reaches the summit by road instead.

The list

Most people rush the ridge in ninety minutes and miss what it is actually showing them. These five details come up on every guided walk and reframe the visit.

• The mount takes its name from real olive groves: both its Hebrew and Arabic names literally mean Mount of Olives, a reference to the groves that once covered the slopes Wikipedia, Mount of Olives
• The western slopes have served as a Jewish burial ground for over 3,000 years and hold approximately 150,000 graves, making the hillside central in the tradition of Jewish cemeteries Wikipedia, Mount of Olives
• The church at Dominus Flevit means the Lord wept in Latin, and while it was being built archaeologists uncovered finds from the Canaanite period and tombs from the Second Temple and Byzantine eras Wikipedia, Dominus Flevit Church
• Several separate small olive groves on adjacent church properties are each identified with biblical Gethsemane, so the garden of the arrest is a set of groves, not one fenced plot Wikipedia, Gethsemane
• The Church of All Nations enshrines a section of bedrock where Jesus is said to have prayed before his arrest, and it was built in the 1920s Wikipedia, Church of All Nations