Interfaith Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives (Olives) mountain is located on a particular site. Tradition says - this is the place where Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after the resurrection.

The Evangelist Luke describes this event as follows: "Raising his hands, and blessed them. And he blessed them, he parted from them and carried up into heaven "(Luke 24: 50-51). In the Acts of the Apostles says more: "He stood in front of them, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And when they looked at the sky while he was going, behold, two men in their white robes, and said, Ye men of Galilee why do you stand looking into the sky? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same manner as you saw Him go into heaven "(Acts 1: 9-11).

The place where it happened, the very first Christians worshiped. Saint Helena found this site during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. About 390 years pomenyatsya rich Roman Christian church built here, called Imbomon (from the Greek - "on the hill"), an open-air rotunda in which the lamps were burning around the clock. This temple was destroyed by the Persians in the VII century, rebuilt but destroyed again in the X century - have the Arabs. In the XII century the Crusaders rebuilt the ruins in the octagonal chapel in the Romanesque style, at the same time served as a vantage point from which they controlled the road between Jericho and Jerusalem.

Saladin captured the city in 1187, rebuilt the chapel into a mosque. But here are still pilgrims, generously and Saladin ordered to build a second mosque nearby, and the former chapel to let Christians. By XV century complex fell into decay and desolation.

Chapel of the Ascension is in the middle of a small circular courtyard surrounded by walls. They are built in rows of metal rings, which are used by pilgrims for tents. It is easy to imagine how the building looked in the Crusades: there was no stone domes and walls between the slender marble columns with elegant capitals. Inside the striking another Muslim addition - the mihrab (niche indicating the direction of Mecca).

The temple was built around the main shrine of the local - a piece of the rock, which, according to tradition, was printed trace the footsteps of Christ. "Footprint" - so affectionately referred to this gem Russian pilgrims. There were two prints, however, say in the Middle Ages, Muslims who recognize the ascension of Jesus, moved the stone with the trace of the second foot in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Chapel defunct, but Christians of all denominations come to pray and light a candle, where for the last time in his earthly guise was Jesus Christ.