Mar Elias Monastery (Hebrew: מנזר אליהו הקדוש, Arabic: دير مار إلياس, romanized: Deir Mar Elias) is a Greek Orthodox monastery in south Jerusalem, on a hill overlooking Bethlehem and Herodium, near Hebron Road [he].

[3] Another Christian tradition is that Mary rested under the large hackberry tree growing north of the monastery when she was fleeing Herod, who had ordered the execution of all the children of Bethlehem.

[4] From the hill east of the monastery, in 1956 one or rather several Jordanian soldiers opened fire on a group of Israeli archaeologists visiting the excavation sites across the valley at Ramat Rachel, killing Jacob Pinkerfield and another three, and injuring 16.

[5][6] During the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israel Defense Forces quickly overran Jordanian defences around the monastery on the way to Bethlehem and Hebron.

[citation needed] Facing the monastery is a stone bench erected by the wife of the painter William Holman Hunt (1827–1910), who painted some of his major works at this spot.