As I left St Anne’s I went through the Lion’s gate towards Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives. The striking Church of All Nations stands on the site where it is believed Jesus came to pray after the Last Supper and was betrayed by Judas.

It looks directly across to the Temple Mount and the Golden Gate which legend has is where the messiah will return through. It is apparently unclear where this idea came from but it has been believed by different groups in all three of the Abrahamic faiths I believe.

Gethsemane means “oil press” in Hebrew and there would certainly have been plenty of olives to press and the trees are abundant here. So of them look incredibly old. To get into the church you walk around a lovely little garden where various Popes have planted olive trees over the years.

This is possibly one of the stillest and calmest churches in Jerusalem. Silence is strictly kept. A 20th century building but on previous sites and covering the site of the Byzantine church completely it has at the foot of the altar an area of rock exposed as it would be somewhere in this vicinity that Jesus prayed before he was arrested

As I walked further up the Mount I stumbled across the tombs of the prophets and I was able to enter into them. I was given a lighter, descended some steps and lit a candle that was to guide me round. There was no chance I was going to see anything with that little flame! Thankfully modem technology came to the rescue and helped with seeing. It was incredible because cut into the stone where holes big enough for a body, much like those fridges you see in mortuaries on TV shows. It was very easy to imagine a body wrapped in a shroud and laid to rest. It gave a rather real image of how Jesus would have been laid to rest, and how there was often an ante-room before the tomb itself. It was a marvellous find that I very nearly missed altogether.

After a quick survey of the Ascension Chapel and Pater Noster church I decided to get ahead of the tour groups and head down the hill again to stop at Dominus Flevit to take in the excellent view there- which is where the photo at the top of the page is from.

It was then down to the Tomb of Mary which was extraordinary as there was a large group of Muslims there to venerate it. I then walked along the top of Gehenna (Hell) aka The Kidron Valley and saw what has become known as Absalom’s Pillar (King David’s very handsome son) which seems to be some sort of tomb.