“Two vast streams of people met on that day. The one poured out from the city, and as they came through the gardens whose clusters of palm rose on the south-eastern corner of Olivet, they cut down the long branches, as was their wont at the Feast of Tabernacles, and moved upwards towards Bethany, with shouts of welcome. From Bethany streamed forth the crowds who had assembled there on the previous night, and who came testifying to the great event at the sepulchre of Lazarus. The road soon loses sight of Bethany.... Gradually the long procession swept up and over the ridge, where first begins ‘the descent of the Mount of Olives towards Jerusalem.’ At this point the first view is caught of the south-eastern corner of the city.... It was at this precise point that the shout of triumph burst forth from the multitude, Hosanna to the Son of David!... Again the procession advanced. The road descends a slight declivity, and the glimpse of the city is again withdrawn behind the intervening ridge of Olivet. A few moments, and the path mounts again, it climbs a rugged ascent, it reaches a ledge of smooth rock, and in an instant the whole city bursts into view.... Immediately below is the valley of the Kedron, here seen in its greatest depth as it joins the valley of Hinnom, and thus giving full effect to the great peculiarity of Jerusalem, seen only on its eastern side--its situation as of a city rising out of a deep abyss. It is hardly possible to doubt that this rise and turn of the road, this rocky ledge, was the exact point where the multitude paused again, and ‘He, when he beheld the city, wept over it.’ Nowhere else on the Mount of Olives is there a view like this.”[46]
On one of those last days the Great Teacher, leaving the city a little before sunset, sat on one of the rocky banks of Olivet, over against the Temple. The mountain rises 150 feet above the level of the city; the city has the appearance of being tilted up on its western side, so that from the mountain you can look down into its streets. The Temple courts would be in the foreground, with Solomon’s Porch on the eastern side. Perhaps the 80 feet of rubbish which now rests against the wall had not yet half accumulated; and in that case the stones which Solomon laid down would be still visible--blocks 20 cubits long by 6 cubits thick, and extending a length of 400 cubits. The disciples had been calling their Master’s attention to the goodly stones and buildings of the Temple, as they came along, and he had declared that they would one day be thrown down; and now, sitting on Olivet he prophesies the end of the age.