Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery

31°46′25.82″N 35°14′35.05″E / 31.7738389°N 35.2430694°E / 31.7738389; 35.2430694

The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives, 155 years apart. The map, from 1858, considered the most accurate in existence at the time, showing around 40–50 Jewish graves (marked on the bottom left). The aerial photo, from 2013, is taken from the south; the number of tombs is now around 70,000–150,000.

The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives is the oldest and most important Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives has been a traditional Hebrew/Jewish burial location since antiquity, and the main present-day cemetery portion is approximately five centuries old, having been first leased from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf in the sixteenth century.^[1]^[2] The cemetery contains anywhere between 70,000 and 150,000 tombs, including the tombs of famous figures in early modern Jewish history. It is considered to be the largest and holiest historical (as opposed to modern) Jewish cemetery on earth.^[3]

It is adjacent to the much older archaeological site known as the Silwan necropolis.

^ har hazetim – The Jewish Cemetery: "from the 16th century the cemetery began to take its present shape"
^ Hirst, David. "Rush to Annexation: Israel in Jerusalem." Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 3, no. 4, 1974, pp. 3–31: "The Jewish cemetery, rented from the Waqf in the sixteenth century, is strictly speaking Muslim property..."
^ "The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives » har hazeitim". 25 February 2016.

[cem-1] r hazetim – The Jewish Cemetery: "from the 16th century the cemetery began to take its present shape"

[2] Hirst, David. "Rush to Annexation: Israel in Jerusalem." Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 3, no. 4, 1974, pp. 3–31: "The Jewish cemetery, rented from the Waqf in the sixteenth century, is strictly speaking Muslim property..."

[3] "The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives » har hazeitim". 25 February 2016.

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