Jerusalem - From the Mount of Olives to Mount Zion

From the Pater Noster Church in Jerusalem a side trip can be made to Bethphage (alt. 900m/2,950ft), a short distance east, with a church commemorating the tradition that this was the Biblical Bethphage, to which Christ sent his disciples to fetch the ass on which he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Luke 19,29). The remains of a Crusader church were found here in 1876. In the 19th century Franciscan church is a stone from this church with interesting Early Gothic paintings.

Turning right from the Church of all Nations in Jerusalem, we come to the Russian Church of Mary Magdalene, a magnificent building with seven domes erected by Tsar Alexander III in memory of his mother Maria Alexandrovna. The church contains the tomb of Grand-Duchess Elizabeth, sister of the last Tsarina and wife of Grand-Duke Sergius, who was murdered in 1918.

400m/440yds farther on is the Gihon Spring. It lies under the east side of Mount Ophel, which slopes down from the wall on the south side of the Temple Mount to the junction of the Kidron and Hinnom valleys. On it was built the "City of David", successor to the earlier Jebusite town conquered by David.

Some centuries later King Hezekiah (727-698 B.C.) ordered the construction of another tunnel from the Gihon Spring. 540m/590yds long, 4m/13ft high and 1m/3ft 3in. wide, it ran under the southeastern slopes of Mount Ophel to emerge at the Pool of Siloam. This ensured that the city could still get water even when it was under siege. It is necessary to stoop in some parts of the tunnel where the roof is low.

Farther south from the Tomb of Absalom is a loggia-like facade with two Doric columns and a Doric architrave. In Christian tradition this was where St James the Less hid after the arrest of Christ. In fact it is a Jewish family tomb which, as an inscription on the architrave indicates, belonged to the Bene Hezir, a priestly family of the first century B.C. Next comes the Tomb of Zechariah, with a cube-shaped chamber topped by a pyramidal roof. To the right of this is another loggia-like tomb which was left unfinished.

The series begins with the Tomb of Absalom, which it was formerly the practice to pelt with stones in memory of Absalom's revolt against his father David. The attribution to Absalom, however, is quite unhistorical. The square tomb chamber shows a characteristic mingling of styles, with a Doric frieze over Ionic half- and quarter-columns. Above this are an attic and a short drum topped by a pointed conical roof built up of dressed stone.

In order to bring water to their town the Jebusites dug a tunnel from the Gihon Spring. At the end of the tunnel was a 13m/43ft deep shaft through which water was drawn up in buckets. The entrance to this shaft, named after its 19th century discoverer Charles Warren, is at the south end of the Archeological Garden.