Praying at the Western Wall - HaKotel. This is a relatively small western segment of the walls surrounding the area called the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and is the place to which Jews turn during prayer. According to the Hebrew Bible, Solomon's Temple was built atop what is known as the Temple Mount in the 10th century BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple completed and dedicated in 516 BCE. Around 19 BCE Herod the Great began a massive expansion project on the Temple Mount in addition to fully rebuilding and enlarging the Temple. Shortly after the Siege of Jerusalem, in 1193, Saladin’s son and successor al-Afdal established the land adjacent to the wall as a charitable trust. It was named after an important mystic Abu Madyan Shu'aib and dedicated to Moroccan settlers who had taken up residence there. Houses were built only 4 meters away from the wall. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%9C_%D7%...