OLIVES, MOUNT OF, called also OLrVET, an inconsiderable ridge lying on the e. side of Jerusalem, from which it is only separated by the narrow valley orJeliosa 'Amt. It is called by the modern Arabs Jebel-el-Tur, and takes its familiar name from a magnificent grove of olive-trees which once stood on its western flank, but has now in great part disappeared. The road to mount Olivet is through St. Stephen's gate, and leads by a stone bridge over the now almost waterless brook Cedron. Immediately 'beyond, at the foot of the bridge, lies the garden of Gethsemane; and the road here parts into two branches, northwards toward Galilee, and eastwards to Jericho. The ridge rises in three peaks, the central one of which is 2,556 ft. above the level of the sea, and 416 ft. above the valley of Jehosaphat. The southern summit is now called "the mount of Offense," and was the scene of the idolatrous worship established by Solomon for his foreign wives and concubines. The northern peak is the supposed scene of the appearance of the angels to the disciples after the resurrection, and is remarkable in Jewish history as the place in which Titus formed his encampment in the expedition against the fated city of Jerusalem. But it is around the central peak, which is the mount of Olives properly so called, that all the most sacred associations of Christian history converge. On the summit stands the church of the Ascension, built originally
by St. Helen, the modern church being now in the hands of the Armenian community; and near it are shown the various places where, according to tradition, our Lord wept over Jerusalem, where the apostles composed the apostles' creed, where our Lord taught them the Lord's prayer, etc. Near the church of the Ascension is a mosque and the tomb of a Mohammedan saint. In the garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the hill, is shown the scene of our Lord's agony. The northern peak spreads out into plain of considerable extent, which is painfully notable in Jewish history as the place where, after the Jews on occasion of the revolt under Bar-Kochebah, were debarred by Adrian from entering Jerusalem, they were wont to assemble annually on the anniver sary of the burning of the temple to celebrate this mournful anniversary, and to take a distant look at their beloved Jerusalem. The scene is beautifully described, and with much dramatic feeling, by St. Jerome.—Con. in Sophoniam, t. iii. p. 1665.