The Western Wall is a limestone retaining wall of the Second Temple platform, built by Herod the Great around 19 BCE, and the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray. Unlike other sacred walls that mark solar alignments, house relics, or record royal histories, the Western Wall is defined by absence—it is the edge of a destroyed sanctuary, a place of lamentation and hope.
What the Western Wall Actually Is
The Western Wall is not part of the Temple itself. It is a retaining wall that supported the expanded Temple Mount platform. The Temple was destroyed by Roman legions under Titus in 70 CE. The wall survived. For Jews, it became the closest accessible point to the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the Temple where the Divine Presence was said to dwell.
The wall runs approximately 488 meters along the western side of the Temple Mount. The exposed prayer section is about 57 meters long. The stones below ground level are larger, some weighing over 100 tons. They were cut and moved without modern machinery. The wall has been a site of Jewish prayer since at least the 4th century CE, though the practice intensified under Ottoman rule when Jews were allowed to pray there openly.
History and Origins
Herod the Great began the expansion of the Temple Mount in 20 BCE. The work continued long after his death, finishing around 64 CE, just six years before the Temple fell. The retaining walls were built to create a flat platform on the uneven hill of Moriah. The Western Wall was the most massive of these.
After the destruction, the site became a place of mourning. The name “Wailing Wall” comes from the lamentations of Jews who gathered there to weep over the lost Temple. The term appears in European travelogues as early as the 17th century. Under the British Mandate, tensions over access to the wall led to the 1929 Palestine riots. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel gained control of the Old City and cleared the area in front of the wall, creating the large plaza seen today.
Symbolism and Meaning
The Western Wall is a boundary stone. It marks the edge of the most sacred ground in Judaism, a threshold between the mundane world and the place where heaven and earth once touched. The wall itself is not holy in the sense that the Temple was holy. It is holy because of what it touches: the air above the Temple Mount, the memory of the Temple, the prayers of generations.
For many, the wall is also a repository. The slips of paper wedged into its cracks are not litter. They are petitions. The tradition of placing written prayers in the wall is relatively recent, dating to the 18th century, but it has become the defining act of the site. The wall holds them. It does not answer, but it receives.
Practices and Traditions
Prayer at the Western Wall follows a strict division: men on the left, women on the right. The wall is divided by a mechitza, a partition. Visitors cover their heads, approach the stone, and recite prayers from the Siddur or from the heart. Touching the stone is common. Some kiss it. Others stand with their foreheads pressed against it.
The Birkat Kohanim, the priestly blessing, is recited at the wall during certain holidays. Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies are held there. On Tisha B’Av, the fast that commemorates the Temple’s destruction, the plaza fills with mourners sitting on low stools, reading Lamentations by flashlight.
The wall is never empty. It operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
How Other Sacred Walls Differ and Align
The Wall of the Temple of the Sun at Machu Picchu
Built by the Inca emperor Pachacuti around 1450 CE, this wall is part of a ceremonial complex high in the Peruvian Andes. The stones are cut with such precision that no mortar holds them. A single block can have twelve faces, each fitting its neighbor to within a millimeter. The wall is aligned to the June solstice. On that morning, sunlight enters a window and strikes the center of the wall.
Unlike the Western Wall, this wall is not a remnant. It is intact, part of a living ceremonial center that was abandoned but never destroyed. The Inca did not write prayers on paper. They offered coca leaves and chicha, a corn beer, pouring them into the earth at the wall’s base. The wall was a solar marker, a calendar in stone. The Western Wall is a marker of loss. Machu Picchu’s wall is a marker of cosmic order.
The Wall of the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque
Completed around 683 CE, this stepped pyramid in Chiapas, Mexico, bears a wall of carved hieroglyphic panels. The wall is a narrative. It records the life and death of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, the ruler buried beneath the pyramid. The glyphs tell his accession, his battles, his death at age 80. The wall is not a place to leave prayers. It is a place to read them.
The Western Wall is anonymous. No names are carved into its surface. The prayers are private, folded, hidden. Palenque’s wall is public, a permanent inscription meant to be seen and read. Both walls are thresholds. The Western Wall separates the living from the divine. Palenque’s wall separates the living from the dead. Pakal’s tomb lies behind it, reached by a stairway sealed for centuries.
The Wall of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy
Built in 1595 CE, this wall encloses the Dalada Maligawa, the temple that houses the relic of the Buddha’s tooth. The wall is gilded. It glows in the Sri Lankan sun. Inside, the relic rests in a golden casket shaped like a stupa. The wall is not a retaining wall or a narrative surface. It is a protective barrier, a container for the container.
Daily rituals include offerings of lotus flowers and the beating of drums. The Esala Perahera festival processes around the wall with elephants and dancers. The Western Wall is approached with quiet reverence. The Temple of the Tooth wall is approached with spectacle and sound. Both walls define a sacred perimeter, but the Western Wall is the edge of a lost center. Kandy’s wall encloses a center that is still present.
Common Misconceptions
The Western Wall is part of the Temple itself. It is not. It is a retaining wall for the platform on which the Temple stood. The Temple was inside the platform, not on the wall.
All sacred walls are for prayer. Some are for solar alignment, funerary commemoration, or relic protection. Prayer is only one function.
The Wailing Wall is a different wall. It is the same wall. “Wailing Wall” is a translation of the Arabic al-Mabka, used by Europeans who observed Jews mourning there.
The Western Wall is the holiest Jewish site. The Temple Mount itself is holier, but Jews are restricted from ascending it due to religious law. The Western Wall is the holiest site where Jews can freely pray.
FAQ
Is the Western Wall the same as the Wailing Wall?
Yes. Both names refer to the same limestone retaining wall in Jerusalem.
Can anyone visit the Western Wall?
Yes. The site is open to all, though modest dress is required and the prayer area is divided by gender.
What is the oldest sacred wall?
The Western Wall dates to the 1st century BCE. Older sacred walls exist, such as the walls of Göbekli Tepe (c. 9500 BCE), but those are not continuous sites of prayer.
Closing
The Western Wall is one of many walls that humans treat as sacred. Each wall defines a boundary: between the living and the dead, the earthly and the divine, the present and the lost. To understand one is to see the others more clearly. For more on sacred sites and their meanings, explore our guide to sacred sites. Read about the Kotel in Jewish tradition. And see how other sacred walls function in ritual practice.