Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus Christ underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great resonance in Christianity. There are several small olive groves in church property, all adjacent to each other and identified with biblical Gethsemane.
Garden of Gethsemane
Garden of Gethsemane, 1914
Andrea Mantegna's Agony in the Garden, c. 1460, depicts Jesus praying in the Gethsemane while the disciples sleep and Judas leads the mob.
Ancient olive trees of Gethsemane
The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes. The southern part of the mount was the Silwan necropolis, attributed to the elite of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. The western slopes of the mount, those facing Jerusalem, have been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves, making it central in the tradition of Jewish cemeteries. Atop the hill lies the Palestinian neighbourhood of At-Tur, a former village that is now part of East Jerusalem.
Aerial photograph of the Mount of Olives
A-Sawane Neighborhood on the Mount of Olives
Olive tree on the Mount of Olives said to be 800–2,000 years old
The Mount of Olives, c. 1899