Tours of Western Wall tunnels show new underground area in Jerusalem
Christian travelers visit Jerusalem to retrace Jesus’ final footsteps along the Via Dolorosa, Muslims to revere the Dome of the Rock, and Jewish people to insert written prayers into the cracks of the Western Wall.
Some people do all three.
Come December, travelers will have a new option available to them when visiting Jerusalem. They can go underground to experience a portion of the Old City as it existed some 2,000 years ago.
An underground building
Following an excavation that lasted more than 150 years, a buried building constructed around A.D. 20 is set to open to the public this year.
The subterranean building is located steps from the Western Wall, a retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism and the place where Jerusalem’s First and Second Temples once stood.
About 10% of the original Western Wall is visible today, with most buried behind construction in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter as well as beneath the ground.
EMMANUEL DUNAND | AFP | Getty Images
The Western Wall is also one of the top sites for travelers to Israel. It attracted 12 million visitors in 2019, said Eyal Carlin, the tourism commissioner for North America for the Israel Ministry of Tourism.
The excavated area dates to the period of the Second Temple, which was originally constructed in sixth century B.C. and later greatly expanded by Herod the Great, who ruled Jerusalem from 37 to 34 B.C. The Romans destroyed the temple around A.D. 70.
The new chambers are located under Wilson’s Arch, an archway that once supported a bridge leading to the Second Temple, seen here in the lower, left corner.
Christopher Chan | Moment | Getty Images
The building, located about 50 feet underground, contains dual underground chambers that are separated by hallways and a “magnificent” water fountain, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the governmental body that oversees the country’s excavation projects. Once located on a street that led to the Temple Mount, the building is now buried deep underground, covered by centuries of construction.
The new areas will become part of the popular Western Wall Tunnels tours, which are conducted all-day Sunday through Thursday, and Fridays until noon.
What travelers can see
To reach the new areas, visitors descend staircases that are like a journey through time, Carlin told CNBC.
“When you dig down, you literally go down through history,” said Carlin. “Each layer represents different parts of history and different centuries.”
A portion of the steps used to reach the newly excavated areas.
Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority
“You go down to the Ottoman period, the Muslim period, the Crusader period … all the way down to the Herodian period,” he said, referencing the reign of King Herod and his heirs, from 37 B.C. to 73 C.E.
Support beams reinforce the hallway between the two chambers of the ancient underground building.
Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority
Archeologists knew one chamber existed,…
Read More: Tours of Western Wall tunnels show new underground area in Jerusalem