From the times of King Solomon to the return from the Babylonian exile and
the Hasmonean period (tenth to first centuries BCE), the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem was a relatively small platform built on top of Mount Moriah and
its highest point was the Stone of Foundation; this was the site of the
Temple. King Herod's greatest building project was to double the area of
the Temple Mount by incorporating part of the hill to the northwest (which
had to be levelled and on which he built the Antonia Fortress) and by
filling up parts of the surrounding valleys. Herod transformed the Second
Temple into an edifice of splendor and surrounded the Temple Mount on its
four sides with massive retaining walls. The walls, founded on bedrock,
were built of large ashlar stones with beautifully dressed margins. Each
course was set back about 2 - 3 cm. from the course below it; the stones
weigh some five tons each, the corner blocks tens of tons.
The Temple Mount, the buildings and the Temple itself were completely
destroyed by the Roman legions in 70 CE. The lower part of the Temple
Mount walls was preserved and its remains are still standing.
Long sections of the southern wall of the Temple Mount and its
southwestern corner were exposed during the 1970s, furnishing a
comprehensive picture of the monumental Herodian walls surrounding the
Temple Mount and the vast, planned areas of public construction outside of
them.
The western wall of the Temple Mount, inside today's Old City of
Jerusalem, is the longest -
485 m. Most of its construction features, including the foundations and
the four gates once located in it, are now known. Not far from the
southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, the remains of "Robinson's Arch"
can be seen projecting from the wall. This arch once supported a
monumental staircase which gave access to the Temple Mount from the main
street below it.
Schematic interpretation of the whole Western Wall showing the section visible today
Best known of the remaining Herodian Temple Mount constructions is the
traditional Jewish prayer area of the Western Wall (the "Wailing Wall")
which has stood exposed, above ground level, for two thousand years. The
Six-Day War provided an opportunity to explore along the continuation of
the Western Wall from the prayer plaza northwards.
Entering a tunnel at the prayer plaza, one turns northwards into a
medieval complex of subterranean vaulted spaces and a long corridor with
rooms on either side. Incorporated into this complex is a Roman and
medieval structure of vaults, built of large dressed limestone. It
includes an earlier Herodian room, constructed of well-dressed stones,
with double openings and walls decorated with protruding pilasters. Ch.
Warren, who surveyed the area in the 19th century, erroneously named it
the "Masonic Hall."
The vaulted complex ends at Wilson's Arch, named after the explorer who
discovered it in the middle of the 19th century. The arch, supported by
the Western Wall, was 12.8 m. wide and stood high above the present-day
ground level. Josephus Flavius mentions a bridge which connected the
Temple Mount with the Upper City to the west during the Second Temple
period. This bridge once carried water via a conduit from Solomon's Pools;
it was destroyed during the Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-70 CE) and
rebuilt during the early Islamic period.
Beyond Wilson's Arch, a large cruciform hall, part of a Mamluk period
construction, was cleared of debris and a large water cistern was removed,
revealing the Herodian Western Wall in its full
glory.
From this point, along the outer face of the Herodian western wall of the
Temple Mount, a long narrow tunnel was dug slowly and with much care under
the supervision of archeologists. As work progressed under the buildings
of the present Old City, the tunnel was systematically reinforced with
concrete supports. A stretch of the western wall - 300 m. long - was
revealed in pristine condition, exactly as constructed by Herod.
At the end of this man-made tunnel, a 20 m. long section of a paved road
and an earlier, rock-cut Hasmonean aqueduct leading to the Temple Mount
were uncovered. Today one can proceed along it to a public reservoir and
from there, a short new tunnel leads outside to the Via Dolorosa in the
Muslim Quarter.
The project of the Western Wall Tunnels was supervised by archeologists M.
Ben-Dov and later by D. Bahat on behalf of the Israel Antiquities
Authority.