Our first stop of the day was the Dome of the Ascension. This marks the traditional site where Jesus ascended into heaven. The biblical text is not clear as to where the Ascension took place (cf. Mt 28:16; Lk 24:50). The ascension of Jesus is commemorated at a circular shrine on the top of the Mount of Olives. There a rough piece of rock marks the place where an early tradition says that Jesus left this world to return to the Father. An earlier shrine of the fourth century consisted of a circular colon¬nade around the rock that was open to the sky. The distance between this shrine and the city of Jerusalem is "a Sabbath day's journey" (Acts 1:12), about half a mile, the maximum allowable distance a Jew could travel on the Sabbath. The Crusaders rebuilt the shrine. This shrine passed into the hands of Muslims in 1198.
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