Photos

The entrance to the Western Wall with the Dome of
the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

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The Western Wall in the midst of the Old City in
Jerusalem is the section of the Western supporting
wall of the Temple Mount which has remained intact
since the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple
(70 C.E.). It became the most sacred spot in Jewish
religious and national consciousness and tradition by
virtue of its proximity to the Western Wall of the
Holy of Holies in the Temple, from which, according to
numerous sources, the Divine Presence never departed.
It became a center of mourning over the destruction of
the Temple and Israel's exile, on the one hand, and of
religious - in 20th century also national - communion
with the memory of Israel's former glory and the hope
for its restoration, on the other. Because of the
former association, it became known in European
languages as the "Wailing Wall".

Most of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, which
was about 485 m. long, is hidden by the buildings
adjoining it. Until June 1967 the accessible portion
of the wall was no longer than 28 m. In front of it
ran a stone-paved alley 3.5 m wide bordered on its
west by a slum area. The Wall aboveground consisted of
24 rows of stones of different dressing and age,
reaching a total height of 18 m. with 6 m. above the
level of the Temple Mount. In 1867 excavations
revealed that 19 more rows lay buried underground, the
lowest being sunk into the natural rock of the
Tyropoeon Valley.

[http://mosaic.lk.net/g-wall.html]