THE WESTERN WALL

Although mistakenly referred to as the only remnant from the Beit HaMikdash, or Holy Temple built by King Herod, the Western Wall is actually a retaining wall supporting the enlarged Temple Mount platform upon which King Herod beautified and expanded the Beit HaMikdash or Second Temple. The pre-Herodian Second Temple which stood on Mt. Moriah was too small for King Herod's needs. He realized that yearly, during Pesach - Passover, close to one million people would be coming to and from the Temple to fulfill their obligation of the bringing of the Paschal lamb (korban Pesach) to be eaten at their Pesach seder. The topography of the Pre-Herodian Temple mount was inadequate to hold the crowds. Herod enlarged the mountain artificially with landfill and a system of layered stone arches,(kipin al kipin) to support his enlarged plan.

Standing at the Wall today, one sees rows upon rows of stones of varying sizes and styles; a living testament to the centuries of occupation, destruction and reconstruction that is Jerusalem. The wall as visible to today is only about 250 feet in width. The rest of the 1588 foot wall is hidden from view by the houses of the Moslem quarter. Only the bottom five or six courses of stone are the original stones, as placed in the time of Herod. They were not destroyed! Actually, the original Western Wall stands all the way to the bedrock. The Roman army destoyed the edifice by casting the top half of the walls surrounding the Temple mount into the Valley separating Mt. Moriah from the upper city of Jerusalem.

Legend has it that when the Jews returned from Babylon to rebuild the Temple, the building of the Western wall fell to the poor, who worked hard to construct it as they couldn't afford to hire others to take their place. When the Romans detroyed the Temple, The angels on high descended, covered the wall with their wings exclaiming," This wall, the work of the poor, shall never be destroyed!"

THE OLD CITY

Ancient Jerusalem
The Western Wall
The Herodian Quarter
The Cardo
The Citadel
Ophel Excavations
Broad Wall
Burnt House
Western Wall Tunnels

Synagogues
The Ramban Synagogue
The Hurva Synagogue
The 4 Sephardic Synagogues
The Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue