Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem, Israel, Middle East

Getty Images/Robert Harding World Imagery

Garden of Gethsemane

East Jerusalem


After a night of feverish prayer, Jesus is believed to have been arrested in this garden (Mark 14:26, 32–50), now attached to the Church of All Nations. It has some of the world’s oldest olive trees (in Hebrew gat shmanim means ‘oil press’), though testing has failed to prove conclusively that these were the same trees beneath which Jesus prayed and his disciples slept. A railing protects the remaining trees from visitors (scotching pilgrims' attempts to snap off branches).

Enter from the narrow alleyway leading up to the Mount of Olives.