Temple Mount: Western Wall (Jerusalem, Israel)

Overview

The Western Wall is the holiest place accessible to the Jewish people because of Muslim control of the Temple Mount. The Western Wall is also known as the "Wailing Wall" because the Jews weep here during their prayers.  Part of the retaining wall erected by Herod the Great around 20 BC to support the vast plaza on which he rebuilt the Temple, the Western Wall is recognized as the sole remnant of the Temple Mount area, although not part of the wall of the Temple itself.

When the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD, part of the western side of the Temple Mount Platform survived.  For hundreds of years prior to 1967, people prayed in the small area of the wall that could be seen at that time.  However, in 1967, following the Six-Day War when Israel captured the Old City, Israelis excavated below the ground level of the wall and found two more stone rows.  They then cleared the area around the wall to create the Western Wall Plaza that visitors see today.  The wall and the plaza in front of it form a permanent place of worship and a focus of prayer as petitions are often written down and placed between the huge stones in the wall. At times, tens of thousands of people gather here for prayer.

The Western Wall Tunnel is an underground tunnel exposing the Western Wall in its full length. The tunnel is adjacent to the Western Wall and is located under buildings of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. While the open-air portion of the Western Wall is approximately 197 feet long, the majority of its original length is hidden underground. The tunnel allows access to an additional 1,591 feet of the wall.

In 19 BC, King Herod undertook a project to double the area of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by incorporating part of the hill on the Northwest. To do so, four retaining walls were constructed, and the Temple Mount was expanded on top of them. These retaining walls remained standing, along with the platform itself, after the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, but since then much of the area next to them became covered and built upon. Part of the Western Wall remained exposed after the destruction of the Temple, since it was the closest area to the Temple’s Holy of Holies that remained accessible, it became a place of Jewish prayer for millennia.

”Warren’s Gate” lies about 150 feet into the tunnel. This sealed-off entrance has been turned into a small synagogue called “The Cave”, by Rabbi Yehuda Getz, since it is the closest point a Jew can get to the Holy of Holies, assuming it was located at the traditional site under the Dome of the Rock. At the northern portion of the Western Wall, remains of a water channel, which originally supplied water to the Temple Mount, were found. The exact source of the channel is unknown, though it passes through an underground pool known as the “Strouthion Pool”. The water channel was dated to the Hasmonean period and was accordingly dubbed the “Hasmonean Channel”.

The biggest stone in the Western Wall, often called the Western Stone, is also revealed within the tunnel and ranks as one of the heaviest objects ever lifted by human beings without powered machinery. Its visible face is approximately 45 feet (13.6 meters) long, 11 feet (3.3 meters) high, and has an estimated depth of 15 feet (4.6 meters) thick! It has a projected weight of 500 - 600 tons! It was carved outside the city and then placed here. By comparison, the largest stones in the Egyptian Pyramids are 80 tons.