50 Fun Facts About Western Wall

In its broadest sense, how long is the entire western retaining wall of the Temple Mount?

The famous prayer section is only about 57 metres of it; most of the rest is hidden behind medieval houses in the Muslim Quarter.

Which ruler is thought to have begun the wall while expanding the Temple Mount around 19 BCE?

Coins found under the foundations in 2011 suggest the wall was not finished in his lifetime, matching Josephus's account that work ended under his great-grandson Agrippa II.

How many of the wall's 45 stone courses at the plaza lie below street level?

The full height from foundation is about 32 metres, of which some 19 metres stand above ground.

The medium-sized stones above the Herodian courses were added during which period?

The small stones at the very top are more recent, many from the Ottoman period.

The wall's huge blocks are of what kind of stone?

They were possibly quarried at Zedekiah's Cave under the Muslim Quarter or at Ramat Shlomo, four kilometres away.

The single largest stone in the wall, north of Wilson's Arch, is estimated to weigh how much?

It is 13.55 metres long and ranks among the heaviest objects ever lifted without powered machinery; most of the other blocks weigh two to eight tons.

Why is the wall the holiest place at which Jews are permitted to pray?

Entry restrictions keep Jewish prayer off the Temple Mount platform itself; a smaller exposed stretch, the Little Western Wall, is thought to be closer still.

Which 11th-century poet made the earliest known Jewish use of the Hebrew term 'ha-kotel ha-ma'aravi'?

Earlier texts spoke of a 'western wall of the Temple', but it is unclear whether they meant the retaining wall or the Temple building's own wall.

The name 'Wailing Wall' has historically been used mainly by whom?

It described the Jewish practice of mourning the Temple at the site; French used Mur des Lamentations and German Klagemauer.

In the Islamic world the wall is named after Buraq. What was Buraq?

Tradition holds that Muhammad tethered the mount there on his Night Journey before ascending to heaven; the first likely mention of the tradition dates from the 14th century.

Under Christian Roman rule Jews were barred from Jerusalem except on which day, when they lamented the Temple?

The Bordeaux Pilgrim wrote in 333 CE that the Jews came once a year to anoint a stone, 'bewail themselves with groans, rend their garments, and so depart'.

Which Byzantine empress let Galilee's Jews pray at the Temple ruins and resettle in Jerusalem in 425?

Jews had been banned from the city since the defeat of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE.

In 1193 Saladin's son al-Afdal made the land beside the wall a charitable trust named after which mystic?

The waqf served Maghrebi pilgrims and scholars, whose houses stood only about four metres from the wall.

Folktales say Suleiman the Magnificent ordered the wall washed with what upon its discovery?

His father Selim I had taken Jerusalem from the Mamluks in 1517, and Suleiman built the city walls that still stand.

Which traveller wrote in 1488 that the wall's stones were larger than any in Rome?

Benjamin of Tudela had described Jews praying at a western wall in 1170, though he may have meant the Eastern Wall and its Gate of Mercy.

An 1840 firman from Ibrahim Pasha forbade the Jews from doing what in front of the wall?

It also warned them against 'raising their voices and displaying their books there', while allowing visits 'as of old'.

Which Jewish philanthropist planned in 1887 to buy and demolish the Moroccan Quarter?

The Ottoman governor and the mufti approved, but the deal collapsed over conditions that only trees could be planted on the cleared land.

Which British general captured Jerusalem in December 1917?

In 1919 Chaim Weizmann offered up to £100,000 to buy the area at the foot of the wall, but Muslim opposition ended the talks.

On the Day of Atonement in 1928, British police forcibly removed what from the prayer area?

Women who resisted were beaten with pieces of the broken frame; the incident made international news and inflamed tensions.

In summer 1929 the Mufti opened the alley by the wall into a thoroughfare, and what was herded through it?

The animals' droppings and other provocations led to protests, and the riots that August killed 133 Jews and 116 Arabs.

How many Jews were killed in the Arab riots of August 1929 that began at the wall and spread to Hebron?

A further 110 Arabs were killed by British police quelling the riots; it was the deadliest attack on Jews under the Mandate.

The 1930 international commission ruled the wall belonged to whom?

It confirmed Jews' right of free access for devotions but banned the blowing of the shofar there.

Which country controlled the Old City from 1948 to 1967, when Jews were barred from the wall?

Jews were expelled from the Jewish Quarter and a ceramic sign reading 'Al-Buraq (Wailing Wall) Rd' was fixed to the stones.

For how many years was Jewish prayer at the wall effectively banned before June 1967?

Israeli control began on 10 June 1967, three days before the Moroccan Quarter was bulldozed to create the plaza.

Which brigadier rabbi proclaimed in 1967 that 'Israel would never again relinquish the Wall'?

Yitzhak Rabin later called the paratroopers' arrival at the stones the one moment that symbolised the whole victory.

How many Arab families were ordered out of the Moroccan Quarter before it was demolished in June 1967?

About 650 people were told to leave at night; the military acted without an explicit government order so the plaza would be ready for Shavuot.

After the 1969 demolitions, the prayer section was extended from 28 metres to how long?

The space in front of the wall grew from 4 metres to 40 metres, forming today's plaza.

Roughly how many visitors can the 10,000-square-metre plaza accommodate per day?

It hosts bar mitzvahs and the swearing-in of new IDF soldiers, and a record 1.5 million people came during Tishrei 2009.

Which Jewish fast day marking the Temples' destruction draws especially large crowds to the wall?

Over 100,000 gathered on that day in 2007; Jerusalem Day, marking the 1967 reunification, is the other great gathering.

Who was the first Rabbi of the Kotel, appointed after 1967?

He gave permission for the Chabad tefillin stand, at which an estimated 400,000 Jews performed the ritual in the months after the war.

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz became Rabbi of the Wall after Rabbi Getz died in which year?

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation is the administrative body in charge of the site.

Which British officer dug the still-visible exploratory shafts under Wilson's Arch in 1867-70?

Charles Wilson had begun excavations in 1864; Warren's Gate, named for the later digger, lies about 150 feet into the tunnel.

Which prime minister authorised a new exit from the Western Wall Tunnel to the Via Dolorosa in 1996?

Riots against the opening killed 80 people over the following weeks.

Where does the wall's biggest block, the so-called Western Stone, lie exposed to view?

It is compared with the even larger stones of the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek in Lebanon.

Robinson's Arch, at the southern end of the wall, once supported what?

Beneath it lies the Isaiah Stone, carved with a slightly faulty quotation of Isaiah 66:14.

Which groups use the 2004 prayer platform at Robinson's Arch, barred from the main plaza?

Israel's Supreme Court had upheld the ban on non-Orthodox worship at the wall itself in 2003 but ordered the arch site prepared instead.

In which year did Women of the Wall begin its campaign for non-Orthodox women's prayer at the Western Wall?

After violent reactions from some Orthodox worshippers, the women petitioned in 1989 for the right to pray without restriction.

Roughly how many prayer notes are placed in the wall's crevices each year?

The earliest account tells of Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, who died in 1743, instructing a poor man to place an amulet between the stones.

What happens to the prayer notes collected from the wall twice a year?

The Rabbi of the Wall and his assistants gather them before Rosh Hashanah and Passover and bury them in the Jewish cemetery there.

Whose prayer note, written on hotel stationery, was pulled from the wall in 2008 and sold to a newspaper?

A seminary student removed it after the candidate's visit and sold it to Maariv; later dignitaries' notes have been moved for privacy.

Which two popes visited the wall and left prayer messages in its crevices?

For many Christians their visits symbolised a restoration of respect for a site once used as a refuse dump under Byzantine rule.

The first interfaith service at the wall under Israeli control was led by a chaplain of which US Navy fleet?

Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff's ten-minute service, with men and women seated together, included the Priestly Blessing.

Which Israeli philosopher called the attitude towards the wall 'idolatry'?

Most Jews, religious and secular, see the 1967 capture as restoring access after a 19-year gap.

What was installed within Wilson's Arch in July 2010, a first for the area?

Requests had long been made for an olive-oil lamp to represent the menorah of the Temple, as is customary in synagogues.

Which sultan conquered Jerusalem from the Mamluks in 1517?

His son Suleiman then ordered the great city wall that still surrounds the Old City.

What 2011 find under the wall's foundations suggested Herod never finished it?

The coins lay inside a ritual bath that had been filled in to level the ground, pointing to construction continuing after Herod died in 4 BCE.

In the 1930s, young Jews were arrested each year for doing what at the wall as Yom Kippur ended?

Defying the British ban usually earned them a fine or three to six months in prison.

The carved stone beneath Robinson's Arch loosely quotes which prophet's book?

The 'Isaiah Stone' inscription, dated between the 4th and 8th centuries, misquotes 66:14 as 'their bones' rather than 'your bones'.

What is the 4,480 sq ft platform completed in 2013 for non-Orthodox worship called?

It is open at all hours, even when the surrounding archaeological park is closed, and was to fall under a 'pluralist council'.

Besides prayers and Bar Mitzvahs, the 1967 plaza regularly hosts which military event?

Crowds are largest on Tisha B'Av and on Jerusalem Day, which marks the city's reunification in 1967.