Q 01/05

The Western Wall's plaza lies in the Jewish Quarter; most of the wall hides behind houses in which quarter?

A) Muslim Quarter

B) Armenian Quarter

C) Christian Quarter

D) Bukharan Quarter

Answer · why

A) Muslim Quarter

The Muslim Quarter's medieval houses were built right along the wall, so only a short stretch of its 488 metres faces the open prayer plaza.

Q 02/05

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

A) King Solomon

B) Herod the Great

C) Emperor Hadrian

D) Herod Agrippa I

Answer · why

B) Herod the Great

Herod the Great doubled the size of the Temple Mount, and the wall was built to hold up the enlarged platform, never as part of the Temple itself.

Q 03/05

Israeli troops reached the Western Wall on 7 June 1967, midway through which war?

A) The Suez Crisis

B) The Yom Kippur War

C) The Lebanon War

D) The Six-Day War

Answer · why

D) The Six-Day War

The Six-Day War began on 5 June and the Old City fell two days later; pictures of soldiers weeping at the wall became some of the conflict's defining ...

Q 04/05

Which gold-capped shrine on the Temple Mount rises directly above the Western Wall?

A) Dome of the Rock

B) Al-Aqsa Mosque

C) Tower of David

D) Dome of the Chain

Answer · why

A) Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock has crowned the Mount since the 690s, and because the wall is part of that compound's boundary, control of the prayer site below ...

Q 05/05

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

A) Nubian sandstone

B) Black basalt

C) Pink granite

D) Meleke limestone

Answer · why

D) Meleke limestone

Meleke limestone, Jerusalem's 'royal' stone, can be soft enough to cut with a knife when first exposed, then hardens in the air into a durable buildin...