Mount Carmel Center, Religious compound in Axtell, Texas.

Mount Carmel Center was a multi-winged complex of pale gray or off-white buildings with flat gray roofs, its longer left wing and shorter right wings meeting near a small square cupola, standing on open dirt and grass near Axtell, Texas. The Branch Davidians held a core 77.8-acre (31.5 ha) area around the administrative building after the 1957 move to the 941-acre (381 ha) New Mount Carmel property. The site was bulldozed two weeks after the 1993 siege; only concrete foundation components and a small chapel built years later remain.

Victor Houteff established the compound in 1935 near Lake Waco as a center for his religious community. Florence Houteff moved the location to the present site in 1957, where the group lived until the federal operation in 1993.

The name comes from a verse in Micah about Mount Carmel in Israel, on which the group based part of its beliefs. The site is still used by remaining Branch Davidians, and a small chapel built after the siege serves as a place of worship and memorial.

The area sits in open rural terrain and is reached by unpaved roads that can become difficult to navigate after rain. Visitors should note that there are no public facilities or shade on site.

The compound had an underground shelter that residents dug in the late 1980s and stocked with supplies. This space later played a central role during the siege, when many people stayed inside it.