47 Beautiful Photos of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives to the Upper Room of the Last Supper

Jerusalem, Mount of Olives

Jerusalem Tour Part 1: The Mount of Olives and Old Jerusalem

Day one of our Jerusalem tour took us from the Mount of Olives down into Old Jerusalem. We walked through the Jewish Quarter, saw ancient ruins from Roman roads, and wove around to the Upper Room where Jesus had the Last Supper. I’m going to show you all of it.

Psalm 122:3-5 

Jerusalem—built as a city
    that is bound firmly together,
to which the tribes go up,
    the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed fora] Israel,
    to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
There thrones for judgment were set,
    the thrones of the house of David.

When you step out of the tour van onto Mt. Olivet, it looks like the photo below. Standing there on the Mount of Olives, you can see an incredible view of the sprawling city of Jerusalem:

On the Mt. of Olives

There was so much I did not get to see, because Jerusalem is huge, and you cannot see it all in one day.

Thankfully, our tour’s very first stop was on the Mount of Olives.

I stepped out of our little bus and breathed in the holy air. Wow! Jerusalem! The Mount of Olives! Wow! This is where Jesus hung out! He came HERE to pray. I think this was his quiet, sanity place.

Jerusalem in Pictures: Mount of Olives & the Upper Room
Jerusalem in Pictures: Mount of Olives & the Upper Room

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.a]                                                       

Luke 22:39-44

Would you like to see the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed that blood-sweating prayer?

They built this Church of all Nations in the midst of it, which makes it much easier to locate.

Jerusalem in Pictures: Mount of Olives & the Upper Room
Church of the Nations, in the Garden of Gethsemane
Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed
Garden of Gethsemane

If you look in the very front of this picture, and also to the right of the church, you can see the olive trees and stones. This is the Garden of Gethsemane, located on the Mount of Olives.

When I took this photo, I was just snapping. I had no idea what I was photographing, except I knew I wanted these beautiful churches. Later I went online and did my research to find the garden.

The oldest trees in the garden are much larger than the ones in the photo above. That’s only a sliver of it.

By the way, they built the church on THE ROCK they believe Jesus knelt on to pray.

This is the REAL Garden of Gethsemane. According to this article, among many others, they proved this through research. These olive trees planted here are the oldest in the world. Most of the trees are not quite old enough to date back to Jesus. However, they were all carefully grown from the same tree. They discovered this using DNA research. The caretakers preserved a lineage of trees that was there when Jesus was.

Some sources report that there are 3,000 year-old trees in that grove that are not much more than stumps now, but still, pretty amazing.

I would have loved to have walked through that garden, but alas, it was not on the standard tour.

real olive trees still grow on the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives

4In 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

The Bible tells us that in the end times the Messiah, Jesus, will return to Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives.

view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives
view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives
Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Church of St. Mary Magdalene
memorial where Jesus wept on the Mount of Olives
the Church of Dominos Flevit, built in memorial of Jesus weeping.

Jesus wept and lamented the future, “set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side . . . crush you to the ground . . . and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognise the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:37-44)

Not 40 years later, that prophecy was fulfilled. The Romans burned the temple and destroyed Jerusalem.

Jesus wasn’t the only one to weep on the Mount of Olives.

David also went up the mountain weeping with his followers in 2 Samuel 15:30.

on the Mount of Olives
so much history here
the graves
Because the Bible says the Messiah will return via the Mount of Olives, many people want to be buried nearby for that day. This is a picture of the thousands of graves on the mountain, over 70,000 to be exact.
so many Jerusalem graves
Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives
the Church of Dormition
Some of my pictures are mysteries to me…It’s pretty though.

DaddyO did some research for me. It turns out this church is Church of Dormition.

outside the wall of Jerusalem
outside wall of Jerusalem

I went into this whole thing expecting a moving, spiritual experience.

The thing was that there were lots of distractions. We had an excellent tour guide to listen to and pictures to take. Plus, you are pouring sweat in June, and you must stay with the group. Therefore, pausing for reflection or prayer? That didn’t happen much, I am sorry to tell you.

We all piled back into our bus, made a stop by a souvenir shop, and then headed on over to Old Jerusalem.

tour group
a view of our touring group from the back of the huddle

Our group was a hodgepodge of folks from Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, and the States. Who knows where all we were from? Thankfully, everyone seemed to understand English.

school of Torah
This sign is for a school that trains students in the Torah.
flowers in Old Jerusalem
Beautiful flowers abounded everywhere. That’s no small thing considering that when the great move back into Israel began after World War II, the land was desolate.
Chamber of the Holocaust Museum
Normally, the standard tour includes a visit to the Holocaust museum. Unfortunately, we were there on Saturday, which is the holy day for Jews, so all Jewish establishments were closed for Shabbat, to include the museum.

There is also a Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. They say it is similar to this one. I bet in Israel it is even more powerful.

It was actually awesome to be in the Holy Land on the Sabbath day.

In Hebrew, it is not “sabbath”, it is “shabbat.”

Shabbat is not just a nod to the law of Moses, either. They take this thing seriously. Everywhere you went, everyone would joyfully greet each other with, “Shabbat shalom!”

Shabbat is their day of rest, which is important, because they work hard the other 6 days of the week. On Shabbat, they do no work at all, according to their tradition, not even to push a button.

Therefore, there was always one elevator in “shabbat mode”, which means that it automatically stops at all the floors.

Jerusalem Wall and Russian Monastery of Ascension
Jerusalem wall with view of the bell tower on the Russian Monastery of Ascension in the background

We entered Jerusalem through the Zion gate. Our first stop was King David’s Tomb and the Upper Room, where Jesus and his disciples had the last supper.

And here is the part that surprised us: the upper room is above David’s tomb.

My jaw dropped open when she told us that.

King David's Tomb

David’s tomb has rules. Men visit it on one side, women on the other, not together.

The Upper Room
The Muslims liked the building, so they didn’t tear it down. They used it for a mosque instead.

Remember, Jerusalem has been sacked many times over the years, so these are not the same buildings as the ones standing during Bible times. You see these beautiful buildings? They were built by the Crusaders around 1099.

windows to the Upper Room.
This building was built by the Crusaders in the 1100s.
the windows to the upper room
inside the Upper Room

People were leaning everywhere, praying, in groups and out loud in the Upper Room.

It was so noisy, I could not carry a thought in my head. Our tour guide couldn’t either, and she chased them all out.  Yep. The whole incident reminded me of Jesus chasing the money changers out of the temple, only she didn’t turn over any tables, and these people were only praying, though they were terribly noisy.

Our tour guide had a name that sounded like Molly. She was a former officer in the Israeli Army, and she was quite likable. Molly was sharp and quick, with an answer for any question about the Holy Land, past or present. She knew her stuff.

Praying in the Upper Room
The excited crowd in the Upper Room
Alan in the Upper Room.
Me in the Upper Room

Notice my wardrobe.

If you are touring holy sites, be sure you have your knees and shoulders covered. It’s a matter of respect, but also rules. They give you a shaw if your shoulders are uncovered. If you are showing too much leg, they provide you with a long skirt thing.

In Jerusalem, the only place we went that was strict about it was the Wailing Wall. In Capernaum, only the monastery said anything to women with bare shoulders.

The Upper Room and Surrounding Buildings, to Include the Dormition Abbey:

Upper Room, later served as a mosque for a while
Our group in the upper room. Certain features in this room were added hundreds of years ago when the building was used as a mosque.
emptier photo of Upper Room
Upper Room
Jerusalem
King David Statue
King David statue
bougainvillea
These beautiful flowers, bougainvillea, seemed to be everywhere in Israel. I wanted to pack a few of these trees in my bag. Don’t worry. I settled for photos instead.
Building with the Upper Room from the front
I could not recall what this was, but a reader named Marianne on Pinterest provided this information:

“This is Dormition Abbey, so called because it is the site where Our Lady “fell asleep”. In the basement is a beautiful mosaic mural of her sitting, before her death, surrounded by the apostles in prayer. Oral Tradition has it that they did that for nine days which is the basis of the modern day novena prayer.”

That is fascinating. I wish I could have visited the basement of this monastery.

The Zion Gate with damage from war in 1948.
This Zion Gate was built in the 1500s.
The Zion Gate, with damage from war in 1948. This gate/wall was built in the 1500s.
war worn wall of Jerusalem
War-worn Wall of Jerusalem
bullet holes in the wall
These are bullet holes in the gate from the war of 1948, between Israel and several Arab nations.
ancient wall from Solomon's times
Our tour guide said that this is the truly ancient wall, from Solomon’s times. I got all giddy when she said that.
Solomon era ruins
More ancient B.C. ruins
Armenian Quarter
This was inside the Armenian quarter.
Jewish Quarter Rd.
It was Shabbat, so the Jewish Quarter was silent, but you could tell that there are normally many shops open.

Also, this white tile is so prevalent because it occurs naturally in Israel.

Therefore, they are able to build large cities with all matching buildings. It has a lovely effect.

ruins from the ancient Roman road
See those columns? These are the ruins from an ancient Roman road through Jerusalem.

This was so exciting! We don’t have buildings in America that are that old! You can even arrange a tour to go through these tunnels that run under Jerusalem to see way more of the ancient ruins.

I wish I could remember what this is…
arches by David's tomb
arches by David’s Tomb
The Upper Room from outsisde
The Upper Room
Zion Gate
Zion Gate
Alan, in the Jewish Quarter, by the Roman road ruins

Hope you enjoyed the tour!! On the next post, we’ll see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. If you want to read all about our trip to Israel, be sure to check out my ebook of the whole story, for sale on Amazon.

Shalom!

Tour Israel in Pictures and Stories ebook

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