Western wall

The Wailing Wall

The most sacred site accessible to the Jewish people is the Western Wall or the Kotel. As part
of the Temple Mount expanded by Herod the Great in the 1st century, the wall is made of
limestone and located in the Old City of Jerusalem where it holds up part of the Temple Mount.
When the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD this wall, a remnant of the
wall that surrounded the temple, was the only surviving piece of the entire temple complex.
Since the temple was the center and heart of Hebrew worship, the Western Wall is where
Jewish people gather to pray, lamenting the destruction of the Temple and ask God for the
return of the Temple. Part of the profound spiritual importance comes from its proximity to the
Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was the inner most place in the temple that housed the Ark
of the Covenant and was beloved to be the seat of God. Jewish devotions at the wall date
back to the Byzantine period following the rabbinic belief that “the divine Presence never
departs from the Western Wall.”
The area in front of the Western Wall before June 1967 was the Moroccan Quarter of the Old
City housing about 650 Palestinian families. After the Six-Day war (June of 1967) those
residences were cleared by Israelis leaving a massive, open-air plaza used for Jewish gathering
and religious rites.
As seen today, the Western Wall measures about 160 feet or 50 meters but it extends deeper
underground. The underground section can be visited by guided tours only and is quite
impressive.
The above ground section of the Wall is divided into male and female sections for prayers and
other religious ceremonies. For centuries visitors have come to offer vocal prayers and to
place hand-written prayers in the crevices of the ancient wall.
While access to the Wall is usually without curfew and admission is free, modest dress is
strictly enforced as is Sabbath Day observation. On the Sabbath no cell phones, picture
taking, or videoing is allowed.