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Mount of Olives
Jewish Cemetery
Orthodox Jews
View of Temple Mount


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The old Cemetery on Mount Olive. It has a great view to the temple Mount - Jerusalem -PIP

The old Cemetery on Mount Olive. It  has a great view to the temple Mount - Jerusalem -PIP
PIP
Since the Jews would not bury their dead inside the city walls, Jerusalem is surrounded by tombs.
A very explicit article about the tombs around the city of Jerusalem, with very good photos (not by me) :
www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/32-tombs-in-kidron.html

Burial on the Mount of Olives started some 3,000 years ago in the days of the First Temple, and continues to this day. It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes.
The cemetery contains anywhere between 70,000 and 150,000 tombs from various periods, including the tombs of famous figures in Jewish history.

Early networks of graves have been discovered on the Mount of Olives, primarily on its southern and western slopes. These are, for the most part, the elaborately fashioned tombstones of important individuals who were most likely buried there because of the Mount of Olives’ proximity to the Temple Mount and the Temple itself.
The winds usually blow into Jerusalem from the west and so prevented foul odors from being wafted into the city. Perhaps this is the reason why one finds very few graves in the western part of Jerusalem

During the period of Jordanian rule, the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives suffered extensive damage. Many of the headstones were removed and used by the Jordanian army. Since the Six Day War, major reconstruction work has been carried out on the cemetery, and the highway passing through the cemetery in the southern part of the Mount of Olives has been closed.

The Jewish graves in Siloam (or Silwan)can be considered the nucleus and the beginnings of the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.The basic features of the Jewish cemetery in Siloam met most of the requirements for a central Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem. The site is not too distant from the city and is located to the east of the city; it overlooks the City of David, the Temple Mount and the site of the Temple; and the relatively soft rock made it easy to dig graves there. Furthermore, because of its escarpment, it could not serve as a residential area for Jerusalem’s future expansion.
Most of the graves in Siloam are in a sorry state of preservation. Some of them were damaged by monks who turned them into residential quarters in the fifth and sixth centuries, making rather extensive changes in the graves. However, most of the damage inflected on the Jewish graves of Siloam is the work of the Arab residents of the village, who have used, and continue to use, the graves as residential quarters, as storerooms for animals, as places for collecting garbage, and for other degrading functions. It is thus not surprising that the very important site of the Jewish cemetery in Siloam is not included in the itineraries of visitors to the Old City of Jerusalem.
More about the Siloam or Silwan cemetery : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silwan_necropolis

Jörg, Gudrun, Boarischa Krautmo, Damir and 6 other people have particularly liked this photo


9 comments - The latest ones
 cammino
cammino club
Eindrucksvolle Serie! Gut gemachte Erläuterung!
4 years ago.
Eva Lewitus club has replied to cammino club
Freut mich, cammino, dass Du die Erläuterung gelesen hast. Hier ist so viel Geschichte, und geht so weit zurück. Ich bin nicht sehr "glücklich" mit den ortodoxen Juden, ( und gar nicht einverstanden wenn sie fanatisch sind) aber irgendwie braucht man sie um die Vergangenheit nicht zu vergessen
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.
 Damir
Damir
excellent description, thank you Eva !
4 years ago.
Eva Lewitus club has replied to Damir
Thank you Damir... one needs the explanations to understand what went on before us.
4 years ago.
Eva Lewitus club has replied to Damir
I am glad you read it, Damir. Thanks!
4 years ago.
 Boarischa Krautmo
Boarischa Krautmo club
danke für die Erklärung!
4 years ago.
Eva Lewitus club has replied to Boarischa Krautmo club
Ich freu mich sehr Markus, dass Du sie gelesen hast. Es erklärt viel...
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.
 Gudrun
Gudrun club
Faszinierende Einblicke!
4 years ago.
Eva Lewitus club has replied to Gudrun club
Danke Gudrun
4 years ago.

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