Jerusalem: Western Wall
Jerusalem. Temple Mount. The Western Wall, “Kotel” in Hebrew, is sacred to the Jewish people as a religious and national symbol. The lower rows of stones, laid like this without cement, are from King Herod’s time. People push notes into the cracks between the stones, notes addressed to God containing requests and prayers. This is an act of direct contact with the spirit of God, which, according to the belief, has never left these stones since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. The tears shed by people putting notes there led to its being called the “Wailing Wall”. Above the Wall is the Dome of the Rock, mistakenly called the Mosque of Omar. It was built in 691 A.D. by the Arab Caliph Abd al-Malek ibn Maruwan, and is considered a strikingly perfect architectural structure.
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