Next stop was the Kotel Tunnels. The Kotel, that we all see and love, is actually one piece of the outside wall of the Beit Hamikdash. About 70 years before the Second Temple was destroyed, King Herod enlarged the Beit Hamikdash. Herod is an interesting character and we will talk about him later when we go to Masada.
Now, in order to enlarge the Temple itself, the surface area of the mountain needed to be enlarged. Sounds so simple, right? Well, for Herod it was. You see Herod was a Roman appointed king over Judea and his building motto was the bigger the better. Herod had the mountain enlarged by building four retaining walls and filling them with dirt. Think about the Temple Mountain as one very, very large sandbox.
The Kotel is the western retaining wall. The Kotel, as we lovingly refer to it, is the only part of the Western Wall that is exposed. Where is the rest of it? It is underground and we were able to walk the length of it.
After the Six Day War in 1967, archeologist began to discover the extent of the wall. After the Romans destroyed the temple, the area was burned and left in ruins. Empire and ruler and empire and ruler that was in charge Israel built over the areas rather than clear away the debris. This caused the street level to rise. Today the Muslim Quarter is above the unexposed Western Wall.
It was amazing to walk underground and view the stones of this wall. One stone is HUGE. It weighs 570 tons and is about 50 feet long. How did the workers get that stone to the Temple without cranes? We saw a movie that clearly shows how the builders used a system of pulleys, animals and logs to roll the stone. That is amazing!! What is more amazing is that there is no cement between the stones. These stones are so thick and heavy that they interlock into each other.
As we continues the walk the length of the wall, we came to the closest part of the wall that is directly near the Holy of Holies. Students placed notes from community members in the wall here.
Then it was back outside to actually view the Kotel for ourselves. We davened an inspiring mincha there and took lots of photos.
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