The Western Wall, Jerusalem

The Western Wall (HaKotel HaMa’aravi, often called the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem’s Old City is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray. It is not a remnant of the Temple building itself but a section of the retaining wall that King Herod the Great built around the Temple Mount when he enlarged it from about 19 BC; the Second Temple on top of the mount was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

The wall faces a large plaza at the edge of the Jewish Quarter. Above it, on the Temple Mount, which Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif, stand the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Visiting the Western Wall:

• The plaza is open 24 hours a day, every day, and entry is free (2026).
• All visitors pass through a security check with metal detectors at the entrances; free toilets are available near the plaza.
• The prayer area is divided by a partition: the larger section on the left is for men, the section on the right for women. A separate mixed prayer area is at Robinson’s Arch, further south along the wall.
• Men must cover their heads; disposable kippot are handed out free of charge. Modest dress with covered shoulders and knees is expected.
• On Shabbat (from Friday evening to Saturday evening) and on Jewish holidays, photography and phone use are not allowed at the wall.
• The Western Wall Tunnels, which follow the wall underground to the north, can only be visited on a paid guided tour booked in advance with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.

About the Wall:

• The exposed prayer section is about 57 metres long, but the whole western wall of the Temple Mount runs for 488 metres; most of it is hidden behind later buildings or underground.
• Above the plaza the wall rises about 19 metres, while its total height from the foundations is about 32 metres, because the ground level has risen over the centuries.
• The wall consists of 45 courses of stone, 28 above ground and 17 below. Most of the Herodian blocks weigh 2–8 tons; the largest, the Western Stone in the tunnels, is about 13.6 metres long and, according to recent measurements, weighs around 250–300 tons.

Traditions:

For about 300 years people have tucked notes with prayers into the cracks between the stones. Today visitors of all faiths keep up the custom and leave more than a million notes every year; twice a year, before Passover and Rosh Hashanah, the notes are collected and buried on the Mount of Olives.