---
title: "Western Wall (Kotel): History and Religious Significance"
description: "Learn how the Western Wall was built, why Jews pray there, and how access and the plaza changed from the Second Temple era to today."
url: "https://hasbara.co.il/resources/western-wall-kotel-history-and-religious-significance"
type: "resource-page"
locale: "en"
categories: ["Western Wall (Kotel): History and Religious Significance"]
---

# Western Wall (Kotel): History and Religious Significance

*Learn how the Western Wall was built, why Jews pray there, and how access and the plaza changed from the Second Temple era to today.*

## Pages

- [How Herod Built the Temple Mount Enclosure](/resources/western-wall-kotel-history-and-religious-significance/herodian-construction-of-the-temple-mount-retaining-wall.md)
- [Why Jews Pray at the Western Wall](/resources/western-wall-kotel-history-and-religious-significance/the-shechinah-and-the-holy-of-holies.md)
- [Jewish Prayer at the Wall Through the Centuries](/resources/western-wall-kotel-history-and-religious-significance/the-ottoman-era-and-mughrabi-quarter-western-wall-history.md)
- [The 1929 Western Wall Riots](/resources/western-wall-kotel-history-and-religious-significance/the-british-mandate-and-1929-western-wall-riots.md)
- [Jordanian Rule, 1948–1967, and the Return to the Wall](/resources/western-wall-kotel-history-and-religious-significance/the-1967-liberation-and-reunification-of-jerusalem.md)
- [The Western Wall Plaza Today](/resources/western-wall-kotel-history-and-religious-significance/the-western-wall-plaza-spiritual-and-national-center.md)
- [The Wall, UNESCO, and Competing Historical Claims](/resources/western-wall-kotel-history-and-religious-significance/countering-revisionism-the-western-wall-and-unesco-resolutions.md)