A source of inspiration and prayer to connect the Jewish people from generation to generation.

Come and Explore the Western Wall in a Short Interactive Guided Tour!

In this 360 VR user experience, in which you can control the direction the tour takes by simply clicking the mouse and dragging it on the screen. If you are viewing the tour on your smartphone, just move the phone in any direction you wish to explore.

What is the Western Wall and What is its Importance?

The Western Wall – The Kotel

The Western Wall is one of the four supporting walls of the Temple Mount that still stands since the destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash-The Second Temple. It is the wall that faces westward, and it is the closest in proximity to the site of the Holy of Holies, the most sacred location within the Temple for the Jewish people.
Since the Temple’s destruction, the Western Wall has served as a source of inspiration, and the focus of yearning and prayer for the Jewish people ever since. It has helped keep the memory of the Temple alive, and is now a site of prayer, heritage site and location for formal ceremonies of the State of Israel.
The traditions of visiting the Western Wall and praying next to its gates are ancient traditions that are centuries old. “We have no comfort other than circling the gates and bowing and asking for mercy” – (from a letter sent to the Diaspora by the heads of the Jerusalem community at end of the 10th century).

Measurements of the Western Wall Length

Length
The Western Wall is 488 meters long.
Height
In the past, the Western Wall rose to a height of 60 meters. Today, the highest point in the exposed section of the wall reaches a height of 40 meters above the bedrock of the eastern hill of Jerusalem (Mt. Moriah).

The Western Wall Plaza

Until the Six Day War (in 1967, when Jerusalem was liberated), there was no prayer plaza in front of the Western Wall. There was just a narrow alleyway in the Muslim Mughrabi neighborhood – the “Al-Buraq Alley”, which was 28 meters long and only 3.6 meters wide. After the war and reunification of Jerusalem, the area was expanded.

The Western Wall Plaza officially serves as a synagogue.

The Courses (Stone Rows) of the Western Wall

The Western Wall is made of 45 courses of stone of which 28 are above ground and 17 rows are still underground under the Western Wall Plaza. The top half of the Western Wall’s stone courses that rise up above the Prayer Plaza are from Muslim restoration. The others are mostly original stones from the Second Temple period. The entire height of the section of the Western Wall seen at the Plaza is estimated to be 32 meters from the bedrock to its highest point.

The Stones of the Western Wall

The sections of the Western Wall that are exposed above ground – at the Western Wall Plaza, the Southern Excavations, and in the Muslim Quarter – contain stones from different time periods. They teach us about the various changes that occurred to the Western Wall since the destruction of the Second Temple. The subterranean layers (as well as some of those above ground) are of the original and dated to end of the Second Temple period.

Other stones (some of which were originally in use during the Second Temple period) were placed in upper layers by Muslims, during different periods of time. At the top of the Western Wall there are smaller stones placed there during the beginning of the 20th century. The original stones can be distinguished from the others based on their size and masonry dressing. The original Herodian stones (from the Second Temple period) are characterized by drafted margins etched around their borders.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation” is a governmental body established by the Ministry of Religion in 5748 (1988) to cultivate, develop and preserve the Kotel (Also known as “The Wailing Wall”, or “The Western Wall”) and its tunnels.

The goal of the Foundation is to make the Western Wall – the remnant of our Holy Temple – a source of inspiration for multitudes of Jews, stemming from the desire to deepen and strengthen their connection to it, and to have it serve as a means of restoring past glory by consolidating the spiritual, moral, and national character of the Jewish people.