Little Western Wall: A Second Temple Jewish Prayer Site in Jerusalem
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Israel
- Primary era
- Classical
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval
- Civilizations
- Mamluk, Roman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Temple
On this page16 sections
History
The Little Western Wall is a Jewish religious site in Jerusalem, Israel, and a surviving section of the Western Wall of the Herodian Temple compound. Built as part of the expanded Temple complex during the Second Temple period, conventionally dated from 516 BCE to 70 CE, it stands near the middle of the Western Wall, close to the Iron Gate in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter. Its position almost opposite the presumed location of the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the ancient Temple, has given the site particular importance in Jewish prayer.
The Temple wall and medieval setting
The wall belongs to the retaining structure of the Herodian Temple compound, the greatly enlarged Temple complex rebuilt under Herod the Great and his successors. The exposed section lies about 175 metres north of the main Western Wall Plaza. The passage beside it forms part of the courtyard of Ribat Kurd, a ribat, or religious and charitable lodging institution for Muslim travellers and pilgrims. Sayf al-Din Kurd al-Mansuri, a Mamluk serving Sultan Qalawun, founded the hospice in 1293 or 1296. Its entrance portal and passage are medieval, while other parts of the complex date from later periods.
The site’s religious use is connected with traditions about encounters with the divine. One tradition says that Elijah the Prophet appeared there to a Jerusalem rabbi several generations ago. Another associates the location with an appearance of the Divine Presence to Abraham Halevi Berukhim, a sixteenth-century Jerusalem rabbi and student of the Jewish mystic Isaac Luria, known as the Ari. Jerusalem Jews consequently prayed beside the wall. Rabbis associated with prayer at the site include David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, known as the Radbaz, Samuel Salant, and Yehoshua Leib Diskin.
Traditions and modern religious use
The history of the site’s recognition has also been debated. Jerusalem researcher Aharon Bir argued that scholars of the Land of Israel in earlier generations did not know the Little Western Wall and maintained that no other exposed section existed beyond the principal Western Wall prayer plaza. Other traditions and practices nevertheless continued to associate the passage with Jewish worship. Members of Brit Hashmonaim, a Jewish religious-nationalist youth organization, held an oath-taking ceremony there. Worshippers traditionally place written petitions between the stones, and circumcision ceremonies have commonly taken place at the site because such ceremonies are restricted in the main Western Wall Plaza.
The site remains distinct from the larger prayer area at the Western Wall. Jewish worshippers visit throughout the year, particularly on Sabbaths and Jewish festivals, while police maintain the established status quo governing worship, access, policing, and use. Religious equipment, including a Torah ark, prayer books, and a reader’s stand, is brought for services rather than left at the site because of concerns about possible desecration.
Tunnelling, damage, and conservation
Modern works around the wall repeatedly affected both its fabric and the adjoining medieval complex. In late 1971, extensive tunnelling along the wall contributed to the partial collapse of Ribat Kurd. A proposal to demolish the approximately 670-year-old structure and replace it with a new plaza was abandoned after international protest. The complex was instead repaired with a concrete buttress and steel supports, which were dismantled in December 2010.
Further tunnelling connected with the Western Wall Tunnels reached beneath the prayer area in 1972, raising concerns about the stability of nearby houses. During support works on 11 February, workers drilled four holes, each measuring 25 by 35 centimetres, into the wall. Jewish worshippers protested, and Meir Yehuda Getz, the rabbi responsible for the Western Wall and related prayer sites, collected the resulting stone fragments for safekeeping. The Muslim religious endowment, or waqf, also protested. The contractor was subsequently required to build supports that did not rest directly on the wall.
Conservation activity continued in 2025 after several months of governmental discussions and approval by the National Security Council, with the involvement of the police, the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israel Antiquities Authority began work on the arch at the northern end of the plaza. Construction debris that had remained behind metal panels for many years was removed during the intervention.
Disputes over the adjoining courtyard
Relations between Jewish worshippers and Muslim residents of the adjoining courtyard have repeatedly been contentious. During the 1980s, the Israeli state expropriated an apartment in the courtyard belonging to the Shihabi family because its occupant was associated with a terrorist organization. Members of Ateret Cohanim, an Israeli Jewish organization supporting Jewish residences and institutions in Jerusalem’s Old City, attempted to occupy the apartment in 1988 but were removed by police. In 1999, Public Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani announced that a police station would be established there, but this did not happen. In 2006, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the apartment returned to the Shihabi family.
In 1986, the Ministry of Religious Affairs made a nearby storeroom available to Ateret Cohanim for benches and chairs used by worshippers. After a confrontation between worshippers and waqf personnel, police took the key, and the room remained locked. Further confrontations in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century concerned waste dumped in the courtyard, its removal, and arrangements for prayer. At times, the narrow passage was closed to movement during periods of heavy worshipper activity.
Legal status and contested administration
The Little Western Wall has not been formally declared a holy place under Israel’s Law for the Protection of Holy Places, despite repeated efforts to secure that status, including an initiative associated with Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Eli Ben-Dahan. The site remains under police supervision rather than the direct supervision of the Western Wall rabbi. Legal scholar Shmuel Berkovitz has argued that it effectively forms part of the Western Wall, which has been declared a holy place, and has cited a Supreme Court determination that holiness does not depend solely on a place’s definition in regulations.
In October 2011, Kotleinu and the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel petitioned the government to include the site under the law protecting holy places, arguing that it is recognized as part of the Western Wall. They also sought cleaning and the permanent installation of benches, prayer books, and a Torah ark. Disputes over religious practice continued to shape official control. During Rosh Hashanah in 2006, police arrested a Jewish boy who continued blowing a shofar, a ritual horn used especially during the Jewish New Year, after being warned to stop and invited to perform the ritual in the main Western Wall Plaza. The shofar was seized, the boy was questioned for three hours, and he was released with an instruction not to visit the area for 15 days. In 2012, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled against him in claims concerning wrongful arrest and theft of the shofar, finding the police actions legitimate.
Remains
The exposed wall and prayer area
Herodian masonry
The Little Western Wall is an uncovered portion of the nearly 500-metre Western Wall. It stands beside a narrow passage rather than a broad prayer plaza and is considerably lower in appearance than the principal Western Wall because much of its height remains buried beneath earth. Only two exposed courses, or horizontal layers of masonry, are Herodian in date, compared with twelve such courses visible at the main Western Wall. The stones retain a rougher surface because they have not been smoothed by contact with millions of worshippers.
The small courtyards
The Little Western Wall plaza consists of two small courtyards. Between them stands a small sealed structure attached directly to the wall, formerly used as a toilet by residents of the Muslim courtyard. The physical arrangement separates this prayer location from the larger Western Wall prayer area, which has a broad plaza in front of it. The wall almost directly faces the presumed location of the Holy of Holies, helping explain the religious importance attached to this particular section.
Passage and Ribat Kurd
The approach beside the wall
The passage leading to the wall is about four metres wide. It runs north from Iron Gate Street towards private residences and formerly served as a route to Overseer’s Street. Iron Gate lies directly beside the wall and provides a view into the Temple Mount compound, the elevated platform in Jerusalem’s Old City associated with the ancient Jewish Temple and later Islamic sanctuaries.
The medieval hospice complex
The passage and courtyard alongside the wall belong to Ribat Kurd. Its entrance portal and passage are original parts of the medieval hospice, while other components were built or altered in later periods. The wall’s ancient masonry therefore survives within a setting whose surrounding structures reflect successive phases of Jerusalem’s medieval and later history.
Altered and conserved fabric
Damage from the 1972 support works
Four holes measuring 25 by 35 centimetres were drilled into the wall during support works in 1972. The stone fragments produced by the drilling were removed and collected for safekeeping. The later support system was designed not to bear directly on the wall, preserving the distinction between the ancient masonry and the structural measures installed around it.
The northern arch
Conservation work in 2025 addressed an arch at the northern end of the plaza. The intervention also removed construction debris that had accumulated behind metal panels in the area. Prayer furnishings are brought to the site only during services, including a Torah ark, prayer books, and a reader’s stand.
