The convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Zion, Notre Dam De Sion, is located on the western hill of Ein Kerem. High walls surround the complex, which is operated by nuns since 1861. A large garden surrounds the monastery buildings and includes a small cemetery where Father Marie Alphonse Ratisbonne is buried. Once an ancient village of the Jerusalem District, a Palestinian Arab town in the Mandatory Palestine's Jerusalem subdistrict, and currently a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, Christian tradition places Zekariyah the priest and his wife, the Virgin Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, in Ein Kerem, and declares this the birthplace of John the Baptist.
