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'the western wall', often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط ٱلْبُرَاق, Ḥā'iṭ al-Burāq ['ħaːʔɪtˤ albʊ'raːq]), is a portion of ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem that forms part of the larger retaining wall of the ...
- 19 BCE
- 488 metres (1,601 ft)
- exposed: 19 metres (62 ft)
- Jerusalem
Apr 24, 2024 · The Western Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem, is a place of prayer and pilgrimage sacred to the Jewish people. It is the only remains of the retaining wall surrounding the Temple Mount, the site of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A Sacred Jewish Site
- Worshiping The Wall
- Modern Struggles
- Israel's Annexation of The Wall
- Sources and Further Reading
The wall is believed by devout Jews to be the Western Wall of the Second Temple of Jerusalem (destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE), the only surviving structure of the Herodian Temple built during the realm of Herod Agrippa (37 BCE–4 CE) in the first century BCE. The temple's original location is in dispute, leading some Arabs to dispute the claim tha...
The custom of worshiping at the Western Wall began during the Medieval period. In the 16th century, the wall and the narrow courtyard where people worship was located with the 14th century Moroccan Quarter. The Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent(1494–1566) set aside this section for the express purpose of religious observances of any kind. In ...
The Wailing Wall is one of the great Arab–Israeli struggles. Jews and Arabs still dispute who is in control of the wall and who has access to it, and many Muslims maintain that the Wailing Wall has no relation to ancient Judaism at all. Sectarian and ideological claims aside, the Wailing Wall remains a sacred place for Jews and others who often pra...
After the war of 1948 and the Arab capture of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, Jews were generally banned from praying at the Wailing Wall, which was at times defaced by political posters. Israel annexed Arab East Jerusalem immediately after the 1967 Six Day War and claimed ownership of the city's religious sites. Incensed—and fearing that the tunn...
Poria, Yaniv, Richard Butler, and David Airey. "Tourism, Religion and Religiosity: A Holy Mess." Current Issues in Tourism6.4 (2003): 340–63.Pouzol, Valérie. "Women of the Wall (Jerusalem, 2016–1880)." Clio: Women, Gender, History44.2 (2016): 253–63.Ricca, Simone. "Heritage, Nationalism and the Shifting Symbolism of the Wailing Wall." Archives de sciences sociales des religions 151 (2010): 169–88.Ritmeyer, Leen. "The Temple Mount in the Herodian Period (37 BC–70 A.D.)." Bible History Daily, Biblical Archaeology Society, 2019Nov 24, 2020 · The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, Ha Kotel and the Al-Buraq Wall, is the sole remaining part of a wall of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.
- Sarah Roller
The Western Wall (sometimes called the Wailing Wall, or the Kotel, the Hebrew word for wall) is one of the last remaining walls of the Temple Mount, the elevated plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem that was the site of both ancient Jewish temples.
The Western Wall, also known as the “Wailing Wall” or the “Kotel”, is the most religious site in the world for the Jewish people. Located in the Old City of Jerusalem, it is the last remaining outer wall of the ancient Jewish temple, and an incredibly important site of modern Israeli history.
The Western Wall is the only surviving structure of the Temple Mount still standing since the Temple era. Perhaps the most famous Jewish destination in Israel and beyond, millions from across the globe travel to this sacred site to pray and find inspiration.
