Mount of Olives Panorama

The Mount of Olives Panorama is the classic viewpoint over Jerusalem, on the ridge east of the Old City across the Kidron Valley in East Jerusalem, Israel. From the terrace near the Seven Arches Road, visitors see the golden Dome of the Rock framed by the Old City walls, with the domes of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Jewish Quarter spread across the skyline. The slope below is covered by the world's oldest and most densely used Jewish cemetery, where burials have taken place for roughly three thousand years, as well as Christian and Muslim graves. A walk down the hillside passes several churches: the Pater Noster Church, associated with the Lord's Prayer, the teardrop-shaped Dominus Flevit chapel, the golden-domed Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene and, at the foot, the Church of All Nations at Gethsemane. Churches generally open in the morning and again in the afternoon, closing around midday. The viewpoint itself is open at all hours. A visit takes one to two hours, longer if walking down to Gethsemane and the Kidron Valley. The best light is at sunrise or about an hour before sunset, when the Old City stone turns gold, and the scene is easy to photograph from the terrace or from the edge of the cemetery paths. Mornings are quietest, and tour buses arrive in the middle of the day, when souvenir sellers and camel owners at the top become more insistent. Visitors usually take a taxi or bus up to the top and walk down, because the descent is easy and partly shaded. As on any hillside in East Jerusalem, valuables should be kept out of sight, and isolated stretches are best avoided after dark. The panorama is free and works as a natural first stop before entering the Old City.