The visible Western Wall, as seen today, is some 230 feet long. But the whole wall is 1,600 feet long. Over 1,300 feet of the retaining wall going north is under ground because King Herod raised the ground around the Temple Mount. However, man-made tunnels were dug in the 1980’s along the Western Wall, from the public praying area up to its northern end. The purpose of the tunneling was for research of the Western Wall and related antiquities.

The Western Wall Tunnels feature the preserved Western Wall, tunnels, chambers, cisterns, the remains of a second century BC aqueduct, water cisterns of the Antonia Citadel, and Warren’s Gate, a Western Wall entrance gate from the Second Temple period. The tunnel also featured several very long, very small areas with nothing to see except for the old wall on one side.

Before we entered the tunnel, there were some 150 or so soldiers who were about to enter with us. Most carried assault rifles with them. I felt very safe and told them so. They did look incredibly young to me.

The second photo shows a depiction of the old temple and again, you can see an outline of today’s Western Wall. From this, you can tell where we entered and see the 1,300 feet that we followed in the tunnel.

The prior photo shows the bridge and entrance to the Temple Mount. Shortly after entering the tunnel, we came to that location and the Roman Vault, which you can see in the next photo.

The photo below shows a chamber opening in the tunnel, but I can’t remember what this section was originally. We passed a number of openings.

I believe that the next photo is a water cistern of the Antonia Citadel.

The last photo is just to show what some of the tunnel walking was like, very narrow with uneven ground.