Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, east from the Latin Hospice

Underwood & Underwood · (c) 1902

We have taken our stand on an old building in the heart of Jerusalem, and are looking eastward over the ancient tiled housetops and past the city walls. Bethlehem is six miles to our right; Nazareth is between 60 or 70 miles distant on our left. Far off beyond that horizon lie the lands of the West Men of the East. Yonder is the Mount of Olives, crowned by a modern Russian tower... Now let us look at the City below us. There on the left is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which millions of the Christian world believe - although scholars disagree about it - covers the site of the Cross and the Tomb of Jesus Christ. As we look across the city, we see a mass of small domes around a large domed building. That is the Dome of the Rock, the site of Solomon's Temple, and covers the traditional rock where Abraham made ready his offering and David built his altar. Farther to the right is the new, pointed tower of the Church of St. John, the headquarters of the Knights of St. John in the crusading ages. It now belongs to the German Government. (From Traveling in the Holy Land through the Stereoscope, by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, D.D. with special "keyed" maps; published by Underwood & Underwood.)