Overview
The Western Wall is the western retaining wall of Herod's Temple Mount enclosure, 1,601 ft (about 488 m) long by the Palestine Exploration Fund survey (1884). The open-air prayer area is only a short stretch of it; most of its length runs behind and under later buildings and is reached through the Western Wall Tunnels.
In 1838 Edward Robinson noticed three courses of huge curved stones jutting from the wall near its south-west corner. He wrote (Biblical Researches in Palestine I, 1841, p. 425): 'their external surface is hewn to a regular curve; and being fitted one upon another, they form the commencement or foot of an immense arch, which once sprung out from this western wall in a direction towards Mount Zion, across the Valley of the Tyropoeon.' He took it for the bridge Josephus mentions between the temple and the Xystus. Further north, Wilson's Arch still stands and carried a causeway across the valley.
Recent work has dated these structures directly. Radiocarbon from building fills shows Wilson's Arch was begun under Herod and enlarged under the procurators, Pilate among them (Regev et al. 2020). The 2018–2020 Western Wall Tunnels excavation found a Herodian dam wall across the valley, later topped by a paved triclinium building after 17 CE ('Atiqot 119, 2025).
What the evidence shows
- Robinson's Arch: three surviving courses of curved voussoirs, one 5 ft 4 in thick; a chord of 12 ft 6 in on the surviving arc; 350 ft from the arch to the rock scarp opposite (Robinson 1841, p. 425).
- Buried courses near the south-west corner keep fine drafted margins and rough projecting bosses, never weathered. Four courses match 'those at the Wailing Place' (SWP Jerusalem 1884, p. 170).
- Wilson's Arch: charred material in the construction fills dates the first phase to Herod and an enlargement to the procurators; a theatre-like structure beneath is Hadrianic and was left unfinished before 132–136 CE (Regev et al. 2020).
- Western Wall Tunnels 2018–2020: a Herodian dam wall with drainage channels, a later paved triclinium building with a fountain (after 17 CE by a sealed Tiberius coin), and a miqweh of the time of the First Revolt (67/68 CE) (Weksler-Bdolah; Levy, 'Atiqot 119, 2025).
- Plastered horizontal channels cut only in the Herodian courses, dated before 70 CE (Szanton & Weksler-Bdolah, 'Atiqot 119, 2025).
Open questions
- What did Robinson's Arch carry? Robinson (1841, p. 425) identified it with the bridge Josephus names between the temple and the Xystus, measuring 350 ft across the valley to the opposite rock. A different reading, that the arch topped a monumental stair running down south to the street below, is attributed to B. Mazar's 1968–78 excavations at its foot. Their final reports (Qedem series) were not available for this entry, so the stair reading is flagged here as unverified, not stated as fact.
- How long did the building take? Josephus (Ant. 20.219) says the temple works were 'finished' under Albinus (c. 62–64 CE). Radiocarbon at Wilson's Arch (Regev et al. 2020) and coins in the Western Wall Tunnels (Levy 2025) show construction around the western wall continuing well after Herod's death in 4 BCE. How much of the western wall's visible masonry is from after Herod is not settled in the sources cited here.
Since 2024
- 2025-08Final publication volume 1 of the excavations beneath Wilson's Arch (Penn State UP). [4]
- 2025-12'Atiqot 119 publishes the Western Wall Tunnels excavation of 2018–2020 (a Herodian dam wall, and a triclinium building dated after 17 CE by a sealed Tiberius coin). [5]
Sources
- E. Robinson and E. Smith, Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838, vol. I (Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1841), pp. 424–427 link excavation report
- C. Warren and C. R. Conder, The Survey of Western Palestine: Jerusalem (London: PEF, 1884), pp. 119, 169–170 link excavation report
- E. Regev, J. Uziel, T. Lieberman, A. Solomon, Y. Gadot, D. Ben-Ami et al., 'Radiocarbon dating and microarchaeology untangle the history of Jerusalem's Temple Mount: A view from Wilson's Arch', PLOS ONE (2020) e0233307 link study
- J. Uziel, A. Solomon, T. Lieberman (eds.), The Excavations Beneath Wilson's Arch, Volume 1 (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2025) link excavation report
- S. Weksler-Bdolah, 'Monumental Construction and Water Management at the Foot of the Temple Mount, Western Wall Tunnels Excavations, Jerusalem', 'Atiqot 119 (2025); with Y. D. Levy, 'Coins from the Western Wall Tunnels, Jerusalem', same volume link excavation report
- Y. Baruch, R. Reich, M. Hagbi, J. Uziel, The Southern Wall of the Temple Mount and Its Corners: Past, Present and Future (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2023); incl. M. Hagbi & J. Uziel, 'The Western Wall Foundations: Stratigraphy and Architecture', pp. 213–238 link excavation report
Corrected from the earlier edition of this page
- Old dimensions 'up to 47 meters high, 60 meters long' are unsourced. The western wall of the enclosure is about 488 m long (SWP 1884). The prayer plaza exposes only a short stretch of it. No source cited here gives the 47 m or 60 m figures, so they are dropped.
- Old location 'Jewish Quarter' is imprecise. The wall is the western side of the Temple Mount. The prayer plaza lies beside the Jewish Quarter, and the wall runs north under the Muslim Quarter.
- Old 'Discovery: 1838 (Robinson's Arch)' is right in substance: Robinson recognised the springer in 1838 and published it in 1841. His identification of it as the bridge to the Xystus is his reading.
- Old 'The discovery of the Western Wall' framing is wrong. It is a standing wall that was never lost.
- Old link 'John 15 (Jesus walks on Temple Mount)' is wrong. John 15 is the vine discourse. The Temple Mount links are passages like John 10:23 and Mark 13:1–2.
- Old 'Mark 13 (Jesus predicts temple destruction)' needs precision. The prophecy concerns the temple buildings. The Western Wall is part of the platform's retaining wall and was not what Jesus pointed at.
Checked against new publications through 2026-09.