Around thirty meters to the south of Wilson's arch is the Kosel Plaza, where we daven. This section is 58 meters long. In a previous post I have theorized that the reason we daven specifically here is because the inner part of this wall is from Shlomo Hamelech's Har Habayis. (There are various sources (אלה מסעי עמוד ה-ו, מסעות א"י ע' 147, ליקוטים הביאו הב"ח או"ח סי' תקס"א) that say that the Kosel is from Shlomo Hamelech's times, and its foundations were built by Dovid Hamelech. However, this raises a question, because in the east wall of the Har Habayis we see stones from that time, and they are a different style, they are less smooth. Also, we do not see a seam in the western wall, where the original wall and Hurdus's wall would've met, like we see in the eastern wall. However, if we say that the outer stones that we see are actually Herodian, but there are more stones behind from the time of the first Beis Hamikdash, these questions get answered.
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Approximately 600 feet (180 meters) to the north of the southern corner of the western wall there is an arch. This arch is 14.65 meters (48 feet) wide and has a span of 12.80 meters (42 feet). Its crown reaches a height of 21 feet (6.43 meters). The arch springs out of the western wall at a level of 2391.5 feet (728.9 meters) above sea level. The arch is made out of 23 rows of stone. On top of this arch are two gates to the temple mount, the gate of the chain (Bab as-Silsileh) and the gate of the Shechinah (Bab as-Sakina). This is the first of a series of arches supporting a road leading from the city to the Har Habayis. This arch was first discovered in the 1850s by Titus Tobler, a Swiss-German explorer of Yerushalayim. It was further explored by Charles Wilson and is therefore called Wilson's arch.
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February 2024
AuthorMy name is Mendel Lewis. Hashem said to Yechezkel, "Its reading in the Torah is as great as its building. Go and say it to them, and they will occupy themselves to read the form of it in the Torah. And in reward for its reading, that they occupy themselves to read about it, I count it for them as if they were occupied with the building of it. (Tanchuma tzav 14) |