The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, the Kotel, and the Buraq Wall, is an ancient piece of a wall. It is located in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Western Wall plays an important role in Jewish history. It is an important place of prayer and worship for many Jews. It is one of the last pieces of the wall of the Temple Mount (a raised plaza that was the site of the First and Second Temples).
The Wall is also part of the walls around the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque (holy sites in Islam). Men and women are mostly separated for prayer at the Wall.
There have been many conflicts about the right to access and control the Wall. There have also been debates about gender and access to the Wall.
This painting of the Western Wall is by the artist Ben Johnson. It is part of the House of Peace set of paintings commissioned by Sir David Khalili.
Text adapted from English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
