On the highest point of the Mount of Olives stands a tower that has become a landmark of the Jerusalem skyline — the belfry of the Russian Orthodox convent of the Ascension, visible from the Old City, the Judean desert and much of the surrounding ridge. The compound was created during the great nineteenth-century expansion of Russian religious presence in the Holy Land, when churches, hostels and monasteries were built to receive pilgrims arriving in ever greater numbers. Behind its walls, the site combines a church in Russian Orthodox style, a convent community, gardens shaded by olive and cypress, and archaeological remains including ancient mosaic floors uncovered on the grounds. The summit position is the site's defining asset: from the tower, Jerusalem is legible as a whole — the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock, the ramparts, the Kidron Valley, the sanctuaries descending the slope, and beyond them the desert falling towards the Dead Sea. Filmed in 4K with aerial support, the programme uses this vantage point to hold together a portrait of monastic life and a wide reading of the sacred topography of Jerusalem.
