Wailing-place, Jews'

The Jews' Wailing Place (now known as the Western Wall or Kotel) is a section of the western retaining wall of the temple mount in Jerusalem, constructed by Herod the Great as part of his expansion of the temple precinct. After the destruction of the temple by the Romans in AD 70, the site became the holiest accessible location for Jewish prayer and mourning, as the temple itself was gone and the mount under foreign control for most of subsequent history. Jewish pilgrims gathered here on the anniversary of the temple's destruction (the ninth of Av) and on other occasions to lament the desolation — hence the name given by Western travellers. The laments of Psalm 79 ("O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance") and the book of Lamentations were recited here. The wall is approximately 485 meters long in total, with the exposed prayer plaza section roughly 57 meters wide; it is the most visited Jewish site in the world.