Sights and Insights: Jerusalem down under
LAST UPDATED: 01/23/2012 14:37
The Western Wall Tunnels allow visitors to explore the full length of the Kotel, seeing first-century Jerusalem.
Western Wall excavated tunnel Photo: BiblePlaces.com
Wayne Stiles has never recovered from his travels in the Holy Land. Follow him on Twitter (@WayneStiles) or on his blog at www.waynestiles.com.
Question:
What major site in Jerusalem can a visitor see without wasting daylight
but that still requires men to wear a hat? (Okay, so you could wear a
yarmulke instead of a hat. And really, most men remove the hat after ten
minutes anyway.)
Answer: The Western Wall Tunnels.
When
you say the words “Kotel” or “Western Wall,” most folks think of the
Western Wall plaza, the place where bar and bat mitzvahs regularly
occur and where soldiers are inducted. It’s the spot where Jews come to
pray—as well as many tourists—and the place of national prayer
gatherings.
But like the tip of an iceberg, the Western Wall
plaza represents only a small part of the whole picture. Most of the
Kotel lies buried beneath the rubble of time and hasn’t seen the light
of day for centuries. Because the site represents part of the Western
Wall, the tour requires all men to cover their heads respectfully.
I
passed beneath a sign that read, “Western Wall Heritage,” and stood in a
small room before a scale model of the Temple Mount’s original
topography. A young guide explained to our group the stages of building
the first two temples on the site. Solomon built the original temple,
and the Babylonians destroyed it in 586 BC. After the Jews’ return from
exile, Zerubbabel helped rebuild the temple. Herod the Great extensively
expanded it in the first century BC—though the construction continued
into the first century—decades after Herod’s death. The stones visible
in the tunnel tour date from Herod’s time and represent the western
section of the massive retaining wall that supported the base of the
Second Temple. But these treasures weren’t always visible.
Nineteenth
century scholars struggled to understand the dimensions of the Western
Wall. Between 1864 and 1870, British explorers Charles Wilson and
Charles Warren discovered the area just north of today’s prayer plaza;
an arch and a gate were named after each of them, respectively. Wilson’s
Arch looms twenty-five feet above the ground—though the original height
was closer to seventy-five feet. The arch covers a large room where
Jewish men can study and pray beside the Western Wall.
As our
group made its way along the full length of the Wall—a total of 1500
feet—we observed bits of archaeology from the first century. Descending
some steps we came to a massive stone that represents part of the
“master course” of stones. One of these stones measures forty-four feet
long, ten feet high, and more than twelve feet deep. Weighing in at 570
tons, it remains the largest of its kind in the Middle East. Every
first-timer’s jaw drops when he or she sees it. Mine still drops.
We
watched a brief video presentation that explained how first-century
workers maneuvered the massive stones into place through a system of
pulleys. Simply a marvel of engineering.
A
little further through the tunnel, we stopped at a small alcove with
recessed lights. An elderly woman faced the wall and clutched a prayer
book, unaffected by our presence. This spot represented, our guide told
us, the closest we could get to where the original Holy of Holies stood
on the Temple Mount. She went on to say that we stood a mere 300 feet
from the foundation rock where God created Adam and where Jacob had his
dream of a stairway to heaven. It always bothers me when any tradition
contradicts Scripture. After all, the same book of Genesis that informs
us that God created Adam and that Jacob dreamed also gives the geography
associated with those events. (And unless Moses got it wrong, neither
occurred in Jerusalem.) Why would we accept one truth without the other?
Traveling parallel with the Western Wall, my hands rubbed the
stones that bore Herod’s signature relief along its edges. We came to a
portion of a first-century street where the signature relief continued
in the bedrock of the hill itself. Plexiglas flooring allowed us a peek
at the aqueduct that ran underground, with the ceiling of the tunnel now
high above us. The tour dead-ended at the Strouthian Pool, beneath the
site of the Antonia Fortress. The pool’s name means “lark,” because,
like the tiny bird, the pool(s) represented the smallest public pools in
Jerusalem at that time.
Assuming
the political climate allows, visitors can file upstairs and find
themselves in the Muslim Quarter. But I prefer to backtrack through the
entire tunnel and exit in the Western Wall plaza. It seems there’s
always something I have missed when I walk the tunnel from another
perspective.
The popularity of the tour requires reservations.
But it’s worth the trouble. I can’t imagine a better use of time after
the sun goes down.
What to Do There:
You’ll
see all this article mentions—plus more. You’ll need to make
reservations for a guided tour. See the Web site for more info: http://english.thekotel.org/
How to Get There:
Walk to the north side of the Western Wall plaza to the sign, “Western Wall Heritage.”
Wayne Stiles has never recovered from his travels in the Holy Land. Follow him on Twitter (@WayneStiles) or on his blog at www.waynestiles.com.