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19671
Garden of Gethsemane and Mount of Olives From Eastern Wall, Jerusalem

We are standing by the eastern wall of the hill-top city and looking east across the valley of Kedron to the Mount of Olives. Three roads lead over the mount; that on the left is the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, down hill all the way after it has passed yonder mountain. That is the path by which the man journeyed who fell among the thieves in the wilderness beyond, and by which David went sorrowfully when he escaped Absalom. The next road going over the mount, farther to the right, is the most direct, though steepest road to Bethany. The lower road, which runs sharply to the right, may also be the one over which Jesus rode when he entered the city in triumph five days before his crucifixion.
The two-story building at the fork of the roads, near the foot of the hill, is a private house. That particular marble building on the side of the hill is a Russian church, as one may readily judge, from its style of architecture. The pointed tower on the hill-top is also a Russian building. The other tower, at the right and farther away, belongs to a Moslem building.
Now look at the enclosed garden where the three roads unite, where tall cypress trees rise and a few olive trees grow in the further corner. That is the traditional Garden of Gethsemane.
Beyond the Mount of Olives, far away to the east lie the lands of the Assyrian and Persian kings, the home of "the wise men," and the vast region of Central Asia. Behind us are the mountains, and then the blue stretches of the Mediterranean, and beyond that, the western world, Europe, and the Americas.