When Was The Western Wall Built?

The Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel, is the remains of a project initiated by King Herod the Great around 19 BC. He decided to enlarge the Solomon’s Temple, which had been built for the second time, and Western Wall formed the perimeter of that expansion. The temple, however, was destroyed again by the Romans in 70 AND, but the Western Wall wasn’t completely destroyed and it still stands in Jerusalem, Israel.

The wall holds a special place in Judaism and Islam. The Jews believe that any one who prays at the wall enters the gate of heavens and the Muslims know the wall as the ‘place of wailing’. Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad tethered his steed to the wall; therefore, it is a holy place to the Muslims too.
The Jews were expelled from Jerusalem when the Roman Empire accepted Christianity. There were Jewish authors like Aaron ben Meir, Solomon ben Judah, who during the 10h and the 11th centuries wrote about the Wall and informed the Jewish diaspora around the world about its importance. The Wall became a cause of dispute among the Jews and the Muslims when Hitler came into power in Germany in the early 20th century. A lot of Jews came to Jerusalem and then the disputes began. Jerusalem by then was a Muslim majority area. The formation of Israel escalated the tension but Israel’s decisive victory over four Arab nations in the 1967 war and its subsequent capture of Jerusalem resulted in the wall again being in Jewish hands. The Western Wall is now in Israeli controlled area of the holy city of Jerusalem.

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