The Wailing Wall is an important Jewish religious site located in the Old City of Jerusalem. Just over half the wall, including its 17 courses located below street level, dates from the end of the Second Temple period, being constructed around 19 BCE by Herod the Great. The remaining layers were added from the 7th century onwards. The Western Wall commonly refers to an 187 feet exposed section of ancient wall situated on the western flank of the Temple Mount. This section faces a large plaza and is set aside for prayer. In its entirety however, the above ground portion of the Western Wall stretches for 1,600 feet, most of which is hidden behind residential structures built along its length. Other revealed sections include the southern part of the Wall which measures approximately 262 feet and another much shorter section known as the Little Western Wall which is located close to the Iron Gate. The wall functions as a retaining wall, built to support the extensive renovations that Herod the Great carried out around 19 BCE. Herod expanded the small quasi-natural plateau on which the First and Second Temples stood into the wide expanse of the Temple Mount visible today.
The Wailing Wall from the courtyard. The name “Wailing Wall” was introduced by the British in 1917 and was based on the reports of 19th century European travelers who often referred to the wall as the “wailing place of the Jews”.
You descend down a short ramp to reach the Wailing Wall. There are two areas along the Wall. One for men and a small area for women. I did not like the idea of a small area for women. The women's area was crowded and hard to find space at the wall. The men's area was active but not crowded. The wall is 105 feet tall from the bottom of its foundations. The construction made with smaller stones at the top is from a later date, starting about the 7th century.
We are looking at a part of the Wailing Wall that was built by Solomon and is much older. The Wailing Wall used in worship was built by Herod the Great. This part of the wall was built by Solomon in the 10th Century BC. Solomon was the son of King David. The Solomon construction is referred to as first temple.
The western wall begins on the left side of the gate. We can see the remains of the arch called Robinson's Arch. It's the the odd looking stuff sticking out of the middle of the wall.
We walk along the road at the edge of the western wall. This is the place Jesus tossed over the tables of the money changers. I can't wait for him to do it again.
A view of the foundation stone of Robinson's Arch and a market area. The original thinking of Robinson's Arch was that when Herod enlarged the area of the Temple Mount during the 1st century BC, the wall was higher in the southern part and a valley was created. This valley separated the Western Wall from the Upper City, making difficult direct access to the Temple Mount. A series of bridges and arches over the valley to the Temple Mount was created to solve this problem. One of these arches, located close to the southern end of the Western Wall, is known as Robinson's Arch. The arch was discovered in 1838 and named after its discoverer, American researcher Edward Robinson.
It was along this road that the money changers, etc. set up their tables. The story of Jesus and the Money Changers occurs in all four Gospels , although it occurs close to the end of the Synoptic Gospels (at Mark 11:15–19, 11:27–33, Matthew 21:12–17, 21:23–27 and Luke 19:45–48, 20:1–8) but close to the start in John (at John 2:12–25) and as a result some biblical scholars think there may have been two incidents. In the episode, Jesus is stated to have visited the Temple in Jerusalem, Herod's Temple, at which the courtyard is described as being filled with livestock and the tables of the money changers, who changed the standard Greek and Roman money for Jewish and Tyrian money, which were the only coinage that could be used in Temple ceremonies. According to the Gospels, Jesus took offense to this (extorting profit from the people to hear the word of God), and so, creating a whip from some cords, drives out the money changers, and turns over their tables, and those of the people selling doves.
A rubble pile of falling stone from the collapse of something from above found on the road. These stones weight a lot and they must have made a loud noise when they came down.
The stones in this part of the wall weight about 60 tons. Nobody knows how they built them, moved them or fitted them. Consider they were built 3,000 years ago with a technology we do not know about. The stones are so tightly fit together you can not get a piece of paper very far into them. It very impressive to think about that, we don't know how they did it, only that they did. I guess we could build such things today, maybe.
The Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock Mosque. They are very close together. Some day the Jews and the Palestinians will learn to live with one another. They have to. The Dome of the Rock is built on top of the foundations for the Jewish Temple. So to speak, they are joined at the hip.
