WESTERN WALL, JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (September 16, 2010) Even from afar, the wall appeared massive and imposing. Its exposed section is 19 meters tall and composed of 29 layers of stone from various time periods; however, it also reaches deep into the ground with 17 more layers of stone (and 13 more meters) to the bottom of its foundation. The Western Wall is what remains of that which surrounded the Temple Mount, the site of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem, the most sacred place for Jewish people. It is nicknamed the Wailing Wall due to the lamentations of pilgrims who consider it a source of inspiration that has, for may generations, moved them to pray. It has kept the memory of their Temple alive. Today, the air about the Prayer Plaza, where one views the Wall, was thick with the sound of yearning.














