Western Wall - Jerusalem, Israel

Worshippers pray and visitors gather in the plaza below the Western Wall (HaKotel HaMa'aravi) in Jerusalem's Old City, and this camera looks across the open square to the huge, pale limestone blocks of the wall itself.

The wall was begun by Herod the Great around 19 BCE as part of a retaining wall holding up the Temple Mount. It's the holiest place where Jews can pray, and in Arabic it's known as the al-Buraq Wall.

The section facing the plaza is about 187 feet (57 m) long and 62 feet (19 m) high, but the whole retaining wall stretches about 1,601 feet (488 m), much of it hidden behind buildings and underground.

Did You Know? More than a million handwritten prayer notes are tucked into the cracks between the wall's stones every year.

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