The Western Wall (HaKotel HaMa’aravi) is the holiest site in Judaism, a 57-meter section of the ancient retaining wall that Herod the Great built around the Temple Mount in the 1st century BCE. The Wall is not a remnant of the Temple itself. It is part of the massive platform that Herod constructed to expand the Temple Mount, creating one of the largest religious precincts in the ancient world. But for nearly 2,000 years, since the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Western Wall has been the closest place where Jews can pray to the site where the Divine Presence was believed to dwell. The Midrash teaches that “the Divine Presence never departed from the Western Wall” (Midrash Rabba, Shir HaShirim 2:9), and that promise has drawn Jews to this wall through every century of exile.
Stones
The lower courses of the Wall are Herodian: enormous limestone blocks, some weighing an estimated 250 to 570 tons (with recent GPR measurements suggesting the lower end of that range), cut with the distinctive flat-dressed surface and narrow margins that characterize Herod’s masonry. Above them, smaller stones from later periods, Umayyad, Mamluk, and Ottoman, show the wall’s continued use and repair across two millennia. The largest stone in the Wall, the Western Stone, is 13.6 meters long, 3 meters high, and weighs approximately 570 tons. It is one of the heaviest objects ever moved by human engineering in the ancient world, and it is visible in the Western Wall Tunnels.
Plaza
The Western Wall Plaza as it exists today was created on June 10, 1967, three days after Israeli forces captured the Old City. Before 1967, the prayer area in front of the Wall was a narrow alley, barely 3.6 meters wide, squeezed between the Wall and the houses of the Mughrabi Quarter. In the days following the Six-Day War, the houses were demolished and the plaza was created, transforming a narrow corridor into the vast open space that millions of visitors now know.
The plaza is divided into two sections: a northern section for men and a southern section for women, separated by a mechitza (partition). A mixed-gender egalitarian prayer area, known as Ezrat Yisrael, was established at the southern extension of the Wall near Robinson’s Arch.
Prayer at the Wall
Visitors of all faiths are welcome to approach the Wall. The tradition of placing written prayers in the cracks between the stones is centuries old, and the Wall receives an estimated one million notes per year. The notes are collected twice a year and buried on the Mount of Olives, in keeping with the Jewish tradition that written texts containing God’s name must be buried rather than destroyed.
Bar Mitzvahs and Celebrations
The plaza is the most popular location in Israel for bar mitzvah celebrations, especially on Monday and Thursday mornings when the Torah is read. Families gather at the Wall with singing, candy-throwing, and ululating, and the plaza fills with the sound of multiple simultaneous celebrations. The combination of ancient stones and modern joy, of 2,000-year-old walls and 13-year-old boys reading Torah for the first time, is one of the most distinctively Israeli experiences in Jerusalem.
Shabbat at the Wall
On Friday evening, as the sun sets over Jerusalem, thousands gather at the Wall to welcome the Sabbath. The plaza fills with singing, dancing, and prayer, and the energy is electric. Soldiers, students, tourists, and the ultra-Orthodox community all share the space, and the diversity of the crowd, united for a few hours by the ancient rhythm of the week, is a sight that captures something essential about Jerusalem.
Mughrabi Quarter
The plaza occupies the site of the former Mughrabi Quarter, a neighborhood of approximately 135 houses that was home to 650 people. The demolition of the quarter in June 1967 remains one of the most controversial acts of the war. The residents were given a few hours to leave before the bulldozers arrived. The creation of the plaza gave Jews a gathering space at the Wall for the first time in modern history, but it came at a human cost that continues to be debated.
Tisha B’Av at the Wall
On the ninth of Av (Tisha B’Av), the annual fast day commemorating the destruction of both Temples, thousands gather at the Western Wall for a night of mourning. Worshippers sit on the ground (as mourners do in Jewish tradition), read the Book of Lamentations by candlelight, and recite kinot (elegies) that describe the destruction of Jerusalem: “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations!” (Lamentations 1:1). The atmosphere at the Wall on Tisha B’Av night, with thousands sitting on the stones in the darkness, reading by dim light, is one of the most intense religious experiences in Judaism. The Wall that was built to support the Temple becomes, on this night, the place where the Temple’s destruction is mourned most deeply.
Visit with Hoshen Tours
The Western Wall is the emotional center of Jewish Jerusalem and an essential stop on any private tour of the Holy Land. Our expert guides visit at different times of day to show how the atmosphere changes from the quiet of early morning to the festive energy of Shabbat evening, when thousands gather to welcome the Sabbath with singing and dancing.