The Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall, or the Buraq Wall for Islam, was quite a surprise for me. I knew it was perhaps the most sacred site in the world for the Jewish people. In my mind, I always thought that the Western Wall was an old remaining section of wall from one of the ancient Jewish Temples. It’s not. The Western Wall is a small section of the old Western “retaining” Wall for the expansion of the Second Jewish Temple begun under Herod the Great. The hill known as the Temple Mount had a huge rectangular foundation built around it with a flat platform creating space for the Temple, auxiliary buildings, and crowds of worshipers and visitors.

Much later in time, however, the Jews were restricted from entering the Temple Mount for something like fifty years. Once a month, they were allowed to advance only as far as the Western Wall to pray. So, they prayed here, through the Foundation Stone, to the most sacred site in the Jewish faith. In time, the Western Wall became like the symbol for the ancient temple and a place for prayer and pilgrimage sacred to the Jewish people.

The first photo is a photo of a model that our guide showed us of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in 66 BC.

The second photo shows a recreated model of the ancient temple. You can see the outline of today’s Western Wall in the photo. So, today’s Western Wall was a middle section of the old Western Retaining Wall of the Temple Mount.

The third photo is one I took to try and show a similar view today to the prior photo’s viewpoint.

We arrived at the Western Wall early, so it was not very crowded. As you see, it was not empty either.

I touched the wall, prayed, and inserted a note into the wall.