The Garden of Gethsemane description and photos - Israel: Jerusalem (Topic)

The Garden of Gethsemane description and photos - Israel: Jerusalem. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is The Garden of Gethsemane.

Photo and description

The Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives, above the Kidron Valley, tradition connects with the prayer of Jesus on the night before His crucifixion.

Small, only 1200 square meters, garden adjacent to the Basilica of Borenia (Church of All Nations). Ancient olive trees grow behind a high stone wall: powerful, knobby, majestic. The guides love to tell that it was near them that Christ prayed on the night before his arrest and crucifixion.

There are actually eight very old trees in the garden. Three of them were studied by radiocarbon analysis - it turned out that they are about nine hundred years old. However, DNA analysis showed that they all descended from the same parent tree - perhaps from what grew here at the time of Jesus Christ. The Romans, having destroyed Jerusalem in 70, also cut down all the local trees. But olives are unusually resistant plants: if a root remains in the soil, sooner or later it will give a new shoot. It is known that the roots of the current trees are much more venerable than the first analysis showed.

However, it is difficult to say that the Passion of Christ began here. In the Gospels, only the area is mentioned - Gethsemane. This was the name of the entire valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives. In reality, the struggles of Jesus could take place somewhere near the modern Garden of Gethsemane - for example, at the Gethsemane grotto, which is a hundred meters to the north, near the cave church of the Assumption of the Virgin. Or on the territory of the Basilica of Borrenia - here in front of the altar there is the top of the rock on which, according to legend, Christ prayed.

Be that as it may, the olives of the current Garden of Gethsemane are the direct heirs of those who saw Jesus with his disciples. Christ and the apostles came here after the Last Supper. On it, the disciples learned what would happen in the coming hours: the betrayal of one of them, the renunciation of the other, the end of the earthly life of the Savior. Even thinking about this, the tired apostles still fell asleep. The human nature of Jesus trembled on the eve of the torment of the cross. Moving away from the sleeping "to throw" (at the distance of a throw) of the stone, He passionately prayed, asking the Heavenly Father: "Father! oh, if you were pleased to carry this cup past me! nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done ”(Luke 22:42). This was the Prayer for the Cup, which inspired artists and poets for the next two millennia.

Strengthened by prayer, Jesus woke up the disciples and met the kiss of Judas, by which they identified Christ. Arrest, interrogation in the Sanhedrin, Pilate's sentence, the way to Golgotha, execution followed.

The Garden of Gethsemane today is well-groomed and pleasing to the eye. Neat paths are strewn with small stones. Tourists take pictures of the famous trees. Ignoring the guests, the workers are harvesting: the local olives are still full of life.

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Topic: The Garden of Gethsemane description and photos - Israel: Jerusalem.