In a Jewish religious context, the term Western Wall and its variations is used in the narrow sense, for the section used for Jewish prayer; in its broader sense it refers to the entire metre-long 1, ft retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount. At the prayer section, just over half the wall's total height, including its 17 courses located below street level, dates from the end of the Second Temple period , and is believed to have been begun by Herod the Great.
The Western Wall plays an important role in Judaism due to it being part of the man-made "Temple Mount", an artificially expanded hilltop best known as the traditional site of the Jewish Temple. Because of the Temple Mount entry restrictions , the Wall is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray outside the Temple Mount platform, because the presumed site of the Holy of Holies , the most sacred site in the Jewish faith, presumably lies just above and behind it.
The original, natural, and irregular-shaped Temple Mount was gradually extended to allow for an ever-larger Temple compound to be built at its top. The earliest source possibly mentioning this specific site as a place of Jewish worship is from the 10th century.
During the period of Christian Roman rule over Jerusalem ca. The term "Wailing Wall" has historically been used mainly by Christians, with use by Jews becoming marginal. This segment of the western retaining wall derives particular importance from having never been fully obscured by medieval buildings, and displaying much of the original Herodian stonework. In religious terms, the "Little Western Wall" is presumed to be even closer to the Holy of Holies and thus to the "presence of God" Shechina , and the underground Warren's Gate , which has been out of reach for Jews from the 12th century till its partial excavation in the 20th century.
While the wall was considered an integral part of the Haram esh-Sharif and waqf property of the Moroccan Quarter under Muslim rule, a right of Jewish prayer and pilgrimage has long existed as part of the Status Quo regulations. With the rise of the Zionist movement in the early 20th century, the wall became a source of friction between the Jewish and Muslim communities, the latter being worried that the wall could be used to further Jewish claims to the Temple Mount and thus Jerusalem.
