​ In the post about Wilson's arch, I have described a monumental building located next to it, called by Warren the Masonic Hall. After writing that post, I found more information about the hall, the thick wall next to it, and the Mikva'os behind the pier of Wilson's arch. In the next few posts, I will redescribe these places, based on this new information. 

   At the southern corner of the Western wall, remains of an arch can be seen. In the times of the Beis Hamikdash, this arch supported a grand staircase which led up to the Har Habayis. It is mentioned by Josephus (Antiquities 15:11:5), who writes: Now in the western quarters of the enclosure of the temple there were four gates; the first led to the king's palace, and went to a passage over the intermediate valley; two more led to the suburbs of the city; and the last led to the other part of the city, where the road descended down into the valley by a great number of steps, and thence up again by the ascent. 

    Around eighty meters (265 feet) away from the southern corner of the western wall, right by the southern end of the Ezras Nashim by the Kosel, a large lintel, with a blocked-up gate underneath, can be seen. The bottom of this lintel is 2398 ft. 5 in. (731 m) above sea-level. This seems to be the second of the gates which Josephus (Antiquities 15:11:5) says led to the suburbs of the city. (The gate that led over a passage to the king's palace was on top of Wilson's arch, and the road that descended to the valley by a great number of steps was the one on top of Robinson's arch, so the two suburban gates must be Warren's and Barclay's gates.) However, this statement seems slightly problematic, because it opens up straight into the city. R' Zalman Menachem Koren writes (the Beit HaMikdash, pp 146-147) that probably, there is a scribal error here, and that originally, Josephus wrote that two gates led to the Tyropoeon, (meaning that it led to the Tyropoeon valley,) and a copyist mistakenly changed it to "proesteon", which is Greek for suburbs. [You can also explain that since the road that went from in front of this gate went outside the first wall, to the area inside the second wall, (as shown here) therefore Josephus says that the gate led to the suburbs.]

  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. 

  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. ​

    Three-hundred and fifty-five meters to the north of the southern corner of the western wall, there is a gate going through a tunnel into Har Habayis, called now Warren's gate. This gate is mentioned by Josephus, who says (Antiquities 15:11:5): Now in the western quarters of the enclosure of the temple there were four gates; the first led to the king's palace, and went to a passage over the intermediate valley; two more led to the suburbs of the city; and the last led to the other city, where the road descended down into the valley by a great number of steps, and thence up again by the ascent". This is one of the gates which led to the suburbs, as it was located outside the original walls of Yerushalayim, in the area inside the second wall. 

    ​The northernmost 79 meters of this wall are not in the same line as the rest of the wall, but projects around 2.5 meters outwards. Although you can say that was because of a tower that was there, this does not seem to be the case, being that this projection is 79 meters wide, way too wide for a tower. 

   The western wall of Hurdus's expansion of Har Habayis, is 485 meters long. This wall, as mentioned in an earlier post, is not perfectly aligned with the north-south-east-west axis, rather it is on a ten-degree angle from it. It had four gates (Josephus, antiquities 15:11:5), two of which led through tunnels to the top of Har Habayis, and the other two opened on top, straight into the plaza of Har Habayis. The northern lower gate is now called Warren's gate, and the southern one is called Barclay's gate. The two upper ones were on top of what is now called Wilson's arch and Robinson's arch. I will IMY"H discuss these gates in future posts.

  In the present-day walls of Har Habayis, there are two types of stones from the time of the Beis Hamikdash, one from the time of the first Beis Hamikdash, and one from the times of Hurdus. The stones are mostly between three and four feet tall (approximately one meter), and around five feet (1.5 meters) thick, but their length has no standard size, with some stones being very short and some being very long. 

   Each course of stones is set back a little from the course under it. This was done to strengthen the wall, since these walls were very tall, up to 100 meters, and had to withstand the pressure of the dirt fill of the Har Habayis. These setbacks are generally between one and a half and two and a half inches (three to six centimeters), while in the east wall, since the wall was taller, (because it started on a lower level,) they are between three and four inches (7 to 10 cm), and in one course, the setback is six inches (15 cm).

  In the present day east wall of the Har Habayis, around 200 feet to the north of the dome of the rock, is a sealed up double gate, called Sha'ar Harachamim-The Gate of Mercy. Through this gate, Moshiach is going to enter Yerushalayim. The Arabs put a cemetery right in front of it, and people say they did that so Eliyahu Hanavi, who is a Kohen, can't enter, because then he will become Tamei. (The Arabs didn't know that a kohen is allowed to walk over a non-Jewish grave, as long as he doesn't touch it. [Rambam, Hilchos Tumas Meis, a1:13) 
   But who made this gate? when? and why?