Western Wall

The Western Wall is the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount and closest to the Holy of Holies, an external relic of the Temple. It is one of the four walls of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction that occurred during the Second Temple period. Since the destruction of the temple, the Wailing Wall has been a source of inspiration for the Jewish people of longing, prayer and preservation. After the Six Day War and the liberation of Jerusalem from Jordanian rule, the Western Wall once again served as a place of worship and as a heritage site where official state ceremonies are held.

Western Wall Design
The general dimensions of the Western Wall
The total length of the Western Wall is about 488 meters. In the past, the Wall climbed to a height of 60 meters, currently the highest point of the visible part is only 40 meters high.

Wall of Lamentations
Until the Six Day War, the Western Wall prayer space was not a narrow alley in the Muslim quarter of Mughrabi, its al-Burak alley, 28 meters long and only 3.6 meters wide. After the war and the liberation of Jerusalem, the area was enlarged and enlarged, it is now 57 meters long and can accommodate about 60,000 people. The Western Wall is officially used as a synagogue.

The total length of the Western Wall is about 488 meters. In the past, the Wall climbed to a height of 60 meters, currently the highest point of the visible part is only 40 meters high.

Forty-five courses, of which 28 are visible and 17 are submerged in the ground, make up the portion of the Wailing Wall that rises above the prayer floor. The height of this section, from the fundamental rock to its peak, is estimated at 32 meters.

The southern section of the Western Wall
In this section, at the foot of the Temple Mount wall, a street of shops passed that offered its products to many pilgrims during the period of the Second Temple. This street was discovered in the excavations of Prof. Mazar, under a wave of feathered quarries, and the damage to the floors can be seen, probably due to damage to the wall stones thrown by the Romans from the top of the Temple Mount during the destruction. In the Robinson Arch area, you can see that the width of the street has reached 8.5 meters.

The Little Wall is the name of another exposed section of the Western Wall, about 170 meters north of the prayer square, accessed by a narrow alley near the Iron Gate, in the Muslim Quarter. In the past, Jerusalem elders used to reach the Little Wall for midnight repairs. From the Six-Day War, groups of travelers visit the site, and on Saturday nights Jews with permission come to pray beside it.

In 1971, as part of the renovation of the Western Wall by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, some of the stones on the Western Wall were inadvertently damaged. Rabbi Meir Yehuda Getz, rabbi of the Western Wall, collected the stone fragments with holy anguish and displayed them in the square of the Western Wall.

The stones of the western wall
The visible stones of the Western Wall – in the square, in the south section and in the Muslim Quarter – originate from different periods and indicate the transformations that have occurred in the Western Wall since the destruction. The layers below the ground, as well as the layers above the ground, are part of the original stones of the Western Wall of the end of the period of the Second Temple. Other stones, some used during the Second Temple period, were placed in the fields by Muslims at different times, while the small stones on the Western Wall were probably placed in the early 20th century. The original Western stones can be distinguished from others by their size and way. Herodian stones are framed and chiseled.