Hebrew Har ha-Zeitim. A two-mile-long ridge running north-south just east of Jerusalem, separated from the Temple Mount by the Kidron Valley. Its elevation (about 2,700 feet) is roughly 300 feet higher than the old city, affording a sweeping westward view of the temple precincts. In Jesus' day it was extensively olive-grove planted, hence the name; at the base lay the garden of Gethsemane (literally "oil press"). The Mount of Olives is mentioned in the OT at David's weeping flight from Absalom (2 Samuel 15:30), in Ezekiel's vision of the glory departing "from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city" (Ezekiel 11:23), and in the eschatological prophecy of Zechariah 14:4.
The Mount of Olives is one of the most densely significant places in the Bible. (1) Jesus taught the Olivet Discourse here — His great eschatological sermon about the destruction of the temple, the end of the age, and His return (Matthew 24-25); (2) Gethsemane at its foot was where He prayed and sweat blood the night of His betrayal (Luke 22:39-44); (3) He entered Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives on Palm Sunday, riding the colt down the western slope (Luke 19:29-37); (4) He ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives — "they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away" (Acts 1:12); (5) The two men in white said He would return the same way (Acts 1:11); (6) Zechariah 14:4 prophesies that "on that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two" — the site of the Second Coming. The Lord departed from the Mount of Olives; He will return to it.