The midrash teaches us that the branch carried back to Noah's Ark after the flood by the second dove, marking the "renewal of life" and the return of humanity to the surface of the earth, was plucked from the slopes of the Mt. of Olives.
The name "Mount of Olives" really describes the whole mountain range running from north to south directly east of the "Old City" of Jerusalem, including what are today called Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives, and Har HaMoshcha or the Hill of Evil Counsel. The mountain is first mentioned in Biblical times, when King David fled Jerusalem before his rebellious son, Avshalom, "by the ascent of the Mount of Olives" (Samuel II 15: 30). It is also mentioned in the book of Zechariah.
The names Har HaZaytim (Mt. Of Olives) and Har HaMoshcha (Mount of Anointing) come from the many olive trees which flourished all over the mountain range. Their precious oil was used to anoint kings and in the Temple service. The term Har HaMoshchit (destroying mountain) is mentioned in Jeremiah 51:25, in reference to Babylon, but was also used as a derogatory application for Har HaMoshcha, which sounds very much alike, as a play on words. The designation Har HaMashchit apparently derives from the idol worship there, begun by King Solomon's Moabite and Ammonite wives "on the mountain which is before (east of) Jerusalem" (Kings I 11:17), just outside the limits of the holy city. This site was apparently infamous throughout the First Temple period, as Josiah, one of the last kings of Judah, finally destroyed "the high places that were before Jerusalem, to the right of Har HaMashchit,..." In Jewish literature, the hill is generally referred to as Har HaMoshcha and not Har HaMashchit. In general, during the First and Second Temple periods, the city of Jerusalem was situated on the two hills to the south and west of the Temple Mount, (Mount Zion and the City of David), while the surrounding hills and valleys, including of course the Mount of Olives range, were used for agriculture and as burial grounds.
When the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital were founded, at the beginning of the century, the name "Mount of Olives" was firmly associated with the traditional Jewish burial ground. Therefore the name Mount Scopus (Har HaTzofim) was chosen to change this image for these institutions.
Of all the hills in the Jerusalem area, the Mt. Of Olives is the tallest - about 830 meters high at its peak, 40 meters higher than the mountain range on which what are today known as Mt. Zion and the "Old City" are situated. However, it is almost 90 meters higher than the peak of Har HaMoriah, the Temple Mount, site of the Dome of the Rock, which lies directly to its west. To its east lie the town of Ma'aleh Adumim and the Jordan Valley. The Jerusalem-Jericho road also winds around the mountainside. From the top, one has a panoramic view of the old and new cities of Jerusalem on the west, and the Judean Desert on the east - a vivid illustration of the verse, "Jerusalem - Mountains surround it, and the L-rd surround His people from now until eternity." Psalms 125:2 Separating Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives are the Valley of Jehoshaphat and the Kidron Valley. The latter turns east around the southern border of the mount and continues all the way on to the Dead Sea.
During both Temple periods, the preparation of the ashes of the Red Heifer, to be used in the Temple for purification, was performed on the Mount of Olives. Numbers 19:2-19 Talmudic sources indicate that during the time of The Second Temple, the Har Ha Beit and the Mt. Of Olives were actually connected by a bridge, and the rituals relating to the Para Adumah (red heifer), whose ashes were essential to the Mikvah purification process for the services at the Beit Hamikdash, were performed on Har HaZaytim. Shortly before the destruction of the First Temple, the Shechina (Divine Presence) "left" the Temple itself and hovered over the Mount of Olives for 3 1/2 years waiting for the People of Israel to repent, before ascending to the heavens. Ezekiel 11:23, Eicha Raba Petichta 23 (According to Talmudic tradition the Shechina departed from the Beit Hamikdash in ten stages. First the Shechina departed the Temple Mount, then the Holy City and the tenth and last resting-place was on Har HaZaytim. There, according to the tradition, the Shechina waited, in the hope that the Jewish People would repent of their sins. But when they did not repent, the Shechina eventually left this world, ascending to Heaven from a spot on the Mt. Of Olives which was called "the footstool of G-d". One tradition says that the Prophet Yechezkel will sound the shofar on Har HaZaytim to announce the beginning of the resurrection. According to the Prophet Zecharya, at the end of days, when the Jews are redeemed by the coming of the Messiah, the Mt. Of Olives will once more serve as "the footstool of G-d" and be the site from which the Shechina returns to the Temple Mount.) The Divine Presence, of course, returned to Mount Moriah when the Second Temple was built, and even upon the Temple's destruction, "the Divine Presence has never left the Western Wall."
During the Second Temple period, the Mount of Olives was the first in the chain of mountains throughout Israel upon which bonfires were lit every Rosh Chodesh (New Month), to announce the beginning of a new month. (The Jewish month begins with the new moon. In its original form, Rosh Chodesh, officially announced the first day of each new month by the Sanhedrin (the Supreme Rabbinic Court), in Jerusalem.) To enable Jewish communities throughout Israel and Babylonia to know exactly when the month had begun, bonfires were lit on high mountains, from the Mount of Olives up to Sartaba - in Samaria, near the Jordan Valley, from there up to Grophina - in lower Galilee, and so on until Babylonia. See Mishna Rosh Hashana 2:4
After the destruction of the Temple, during the Roman and Byzantine periods, Jews were not permitted to live or pray in Jerusalem. With the Moslem conquest of Jerusalem in 638 C.E., Jews were allowed to resettle in Jerusalem. However, since the Dome of the Rock

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