Where Does the Name Wailing Wall Come From?
A crucial place in the Jewish history
For non-Jews, it is an old fragment of a wall that is more than 2,000 years old, but for Jews, it is a crucial element of their history and identity. This is the only thing left of the “Second Temple” that once stood on the Temple Mount just above and was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The Western Wall forms part of the Temple Mount complex, considered as a sacred place for three religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) and thus hot spot of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem.
The nearly 2,000-year-old Wailing Wall, also known as Western Wall, or the “Kotel” for the Jews), is made up of huge blocks of stones up to 100 tons, built without binders. The space in front of the Wall, where houses used to stand not so long ago, functions as an open-air synagogue.
Between the first Israeli-Arab war in 1948 and the Six-Day War in 1967, the area was under Jordanian occupation, and the Jewish people had no access to the Wall.
During the “Six-Day War”, i.e. the third Israeli-Arab War in 1967, Israel occupied the Old City from Jordan and demolished the neighboring Arab residential area. They created a space in front of the Western Wall where the Jewish people could pray undisturbed.
