Mount of Olives

A mountain ridge east of Jerusalem, named after the olive groves that once covered its slopes. It was mentioned in 2 Samuel 15.30 as somewhere David went in his flight from Absalom. Its importance in Judaism comes from a mention in Zechariah 14.4 as the place where the Lord would stand and the land would split in two. This has led to the belief that the resurrection of the dead would begin on the Mount of Olives. As a result it is a very important cemetery contained around 150,000 graves. It was also mentioned as a route Jesus took into Jerusalem on more than one occasion, where he wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19.41), taught the disciples (Matthew 24-5), and was the location of Jesus' betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane.