"Where two millennia of Jewish prayer press against ancient stone, and the Divine Presence is said never to have departed"
Western Wall
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
The Western Wall stands as the holiest accessible site in Judaism, the closest point to where the Holy of Holies once dwelt within the Temple. For two thousand years, Jews in exile have faced this direction in prayer. Those who stand before it today join an unbroken chain of seekers who have pressed their hands and hopes against these stones.
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Quick Facts
Location
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Tradition
Site Type
Coordinates
31.7767, 35.2345
Last Updated
Jan 9, 2026
The Western Wall is a remnant of King Herod's expansion of the Second Temple in the first century BCE. Though the Temple itself was destroyed by Rome in 70 CE, this retaining wall survived and became, through centuries of devotion, Judaism's holiest accessible site. Its history encompasses exile, limited access, and the dramatic return of 1967.
Origin Story
The story begins not with the Wall but with the mountain above it. According to Jewish tradition, this is Mount Moriah—where Abraham bound Isaac for sacrifice, where Jacob dreamed of angels ascending and descending, where King David purchased a threshing floor to build an altar that would become the site of Solomon's Temple.
Solomon's Temple, the First Temple, stood for approximately four hundred years before the Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BCE. After exile and return, the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE—a modest structure that would be spectacularly transformed by Herod the Great beginning around 20 BCE. Herod doubled the size of the Temple Mount platform by building massive retaining walls and filling the gaps. The Western Wall is the most visible portion of this construction that remains.
Herod's Temple stood less than a century. In 70 CE, Roman legions under Titus breached Jerusalem's walls, slaughtered or enslaved the population, and systematically destroyed the Temple. Josephus, the Jewish historian who witnessed the destruction, records that Titus wished to spare the Temple but could not prevent his soldiers from setting it ablaze.
Yet the retaining walls survived. And at the western wall, Jewish tradition insists, something more survived. The Midrash teaches that the Shechinah—the manifest Divine Presence that dwelt in the Holy of Holies—never departed from this place. What Rome could not destroy, millennia have not diminished.
Key Figures
King Herod
הוֹרְדוֹס (Hordos)
historical
The Roman-appointed king who rebuilt the Temple on unprecedented scale. His massive retaining walls, including the Western Wall, were engineering marvels that have survived two millennia. Herod was a complex figure—remembered for both his building projects and his cruelty.
The Shechinah
שְׁכִינָה
divine
The Divine Presence, the aspect of God that dwells among humanity. Jewish tradition holds that the Shechinah inhabited the Holy of Holies in the Temple and never departed from the Western Wall even after the Temple's destruction.
Mordechai Gur
historical
The Israeli paratrooper commander who announced 'The Temple Mount is in our hands' during the 1967 Six-Day War, marking the return of Jewish access to the Western Wall after nineteen years of Jordanian control.
Spiritual Lineage
For nineteen centuries, Jews in exile oriented their prayers toward Jerusalem and the lost Temple. Those who could make pilgrimage—and during many periods, few could—pressed themselves against these stones and wept for what was destroyed. The name "Wailing Wall" emerged from Byzantine-era observations of Jewish mourning. Access varied with rulers. Under Islamic rule, Jews generally could pray at the Wall, though in a narrow alley rather than an open plaza. Under Jordanian control (1948-1967), Jews were entirely barred from the site and the Jewish Quarter. The 1967 capture transformed everything—the plaza was created, access became unrestricted, and the Wall became central to Israeli national identity as well as Jewish religious practice. Today the site hosts millions of visitors annually. Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are celebrated here. Israeli soldiers are sworn in. National memorial ceremonies occur on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Wall has become not only a place of prayer but a symbol of Jewish survival and continuity.
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