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Picture of the day -
July 25, 2006
The Wailing Wall
Click photo to enlarge.
Photo courtesy of
FreeStockPhotos.com.
Today's picture features the holiest of
all Jewish shrines as well as the most hotly contested part of
the city of Jerusalem: The Wailing Wall (also known as the Western
Wall).
In the year 20 BC, Herod constructed the Temple Mount
(the most sacred building in Judaism),
and what we now know as the Wailing Wall is actually the ruins of
the western retaining wall that supported one side of the structure.
For quite some time after the Second Temple was destroyed in
70 AD, Jews were only allowed to visit the site to weep over the
ruins one day a year on the anniversary of the temple's destruction.
This led to the wall acquiring the moniker "The Wailing Wall".
Today, the Wailing Wall is still the holiest shrine in the world for
Jews...but it is also the third holiest shrine for Muslims. This
seemingly insurmountable conflict has had the Israelis and Palestinians feuding over
ownership of the wall for many years.
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