Visit to the Kotel tunnels

This visit is a must-do during your trip to Jerusalem, although many visitors are unable to do so due to time constraints or the need to book well in advance. The tour takes place beneath the Old City of Jerusalem (and is therefore not suitable for those who suffer from claustrophobia) along the Western Wall (Kotel).

Kotel is the Hebrew word for "Wall": it refers to the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. It is not a Temple wall, but rather the wall that supported the western side of the large esplanade built by King Herod, on which stood the Temple and other buildings, including the Royal Stoa. The Kotel was also called the Wailing Wall because, during certain periods in their history, Jews were forbidden from going to the Kotel except for one day a year, on the Hebrew date of the 9th of Av, to mourn the destruction of the Temple (by the Romans in 70 CE) and the loss of their independence as a nation.

On this esplanade, the entrance to the Temple was on the east side, and it was also there that one found Solomon's Colonnade, so named in the Gospels, and where Jesus overturned the stalls of the "Temple merchants." These merchants were actually of two kinds: sellers of sacrificial animals (typically doves) and money changers (because one could not pay for a sacrificial animal with Roman coins bearing an image of the emperor-god; one had to exchange these coins into shekels and then buy the animal to be sacrificed).

Diagram of the Temple Mount as seen from the west

To the north of the Temple Mount stood the Antonia Fortress, built by Herod to house a garrison for surveillance. It was named in honor of Herod's patron, Mark Antony, governor of the eastern Roman provinces and... Cleopatra's lover.

There were two main entrances to the Temple Mount. For non-Jews, access was via Robinson's Arch on the west side, which led to the Royal Stoa. For Jews, who went to Solomon's Colonnade to purchase sacrificial animals, the entrance was on the south side through the Huldah Gates. These gates provided access to an underground passage beneath the Stoa, which opened onto the Temple Mount itself. But the priests, who had to go to the Temple every day (according to the rotation of priestly families), passed through a bridge over the Tyropoeon valley, connecting the Upper City (that of the priests) and the Temple Mount without needing to go down to the Lower City and up to the Temple. This bridge also served as an aqueduct because King Herod had decommissioned the rainwater supply channel from the north of the Temple Mount (this channel had likely also been in use from the First Temple period until the Second Temple period during the Hasmonean reign). Instead of this rainwater, which was collected in basins north of the Temple (including the Pools of Bethesda), King Herod had basins and aqueducts built to bring spring water from the farther Judean Hills to Jerusalem.

There was also a service gate, discovered by archaeologist Warren and named after him: this was the gate closest to the western end of the Temple, and therefore to the Holy of Holies (where the Ark of the Covenant was kept during the First Temple period).

If terms like First Temple period, Second Temple period, Hasmonean, Roman, Byzantine, or medieval are difficult for you to place in the time, why not start by reading my simplified timeline of Jerusalem's roughly 3,500 years of history? To learn more, click here.

TUNNEL TOUR

The tour begins at the visitor center located to the left of the Western Wall (Kotel) when facing it. It's usually advisable to book this tour in advance, choosing the guided tour option in Hebrew, English, and sometimes French, for a specific day and time.

Once inside, you'll find yourself at the level of the arches that once supported the aqueduct overhead. Walking along the arches, you'll reach a larger arch: Wilson's Arch. It was larger than the other previous arches because it spanned the pedestrian and shopping street below, which runs parallel to the Western Wall.

Cross-section of the area of ​​the arches leading to the Western Wall

This arch can be seen either through the prayer tunnels at the Kotel on the men's side, or during this visit from a terrace in the women's prayer section overlooking the men's prayer area below.

Wilson's Arch as seen from the men's prayer hall

The tour continues past a modern synagogue housed in a large hall. This synagogue is open to all Jews who wish to pray there on Shabbat or religious holidays. Next, a staircase leads down to the level where the rest of the tour continues along the Western Wall (Kotel). This level is several meters below the Old City and several meters above the riverbed that once formed the Tyropoeon Valley. It is possible to descend even further, passing through rooms dating from the medieval period (including one similar to the refectory of the Knights Hospitaller in Acre), the Roman period (including an odeon and a nymphaeon), and the Second Temple period (including a mikveh, or ritual bath). However, not all of these sections are yet open to the public.

The tour arrives at the Western Wall at the site of a giant Herodian stone. This stone is over 13 meters long, over 3 meters high, and estimated to be over 2 meters thick.

Giant Herodian stone, part of the Western Wall

These dimensions give it an estimated weight of 300 tons, the equivalent of 75 elephants or a Boeing 777. This stone is the largest of a set of four giant stones. It is believed that these four stones were placed to reinforce the stability of the Western Wall (Kotel) in topographically challenging areas or areas with internal cavities within the Temple Mount. However, these stones are not located at the lowest point of the Kotel, as the Kotel extends several meters below the visitor's level. Consequently, no one has found an answer to the simple question: how could such stones have been transported to the Kotel and lifted and placed on top of other, "normally" sized stones? These stones are situated approximately 12 meters above the surface of the mountain. Theories abound, but no answer is satisfactory.

It is worth noting that the stones of the Western Wall were cut extremely flat, as no mortar or cement was used to "glue" the stones together: they are simply laid flat one on top of the other. Even today, the technique used by the stonemasons to create these flat surfaces remains a mystery. The stones are simply laid with a slight offset of about 2 centimeters from one stone to the next.

Arrangement of the Herodian stones of the Western Wall

The tour continues along the Western Wall (Kotel), and after a few meters, you reach a passage carved into the wall: this is the old gate and service tunnel to the Temple. It was discovered by the British military officer and archaeologist Charles Warren in 1867 and named after him. It is located approximately 45 meters north of the current Western Wall. On the other side of this gate, now sealed, is a service passage leading to the Temple. Before the construction of the new, modern synagogue, seen earlier on this tour, the Jews had established a small synagogue, accessible by a staircase leading up opposite Warren's Gate. This arrangement is no longer in use today.

Continuing along the tour for a few more meters, you arrive at an archway with a stone wall. This space is a Jewish place of prayer because, topographically, it is the closest point to where the Holy of Holies was located in the Temple.

The closest place of prayer to the Holy of Holies

After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Muslim conquerors allowed Jews to pray in this tunnel, and the latter established a small synagogue there. The Jews of the time called this synagogue "the Cave" because it was underground. But in 1099, the Crusaders massacred the population of Jerusalem, both Jews and Muslims (the Christians had been expelled by the Muslims shortly before the Crusader siege), and destroyed this synagogue, transforming the entire hollow space into a cistern.

After the Six-Day War, Israeli archaeologists quickly became interested in organizing excavations in the Old City (particularly in the Jewish Quarter, dynamited and destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948) and, of course, around the Temple Mount, a holy site for Jews for 3,000 years. The archaeologists excavated the tunnel that continues today along the Western Wall. But they also began digging perpendicularly to reach what lay beyond the arch of prayers, because, according to the rabbis, this passage would have allowed direct access beneath the Dome of the Rock and perhaps the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant, hidden by the pious King Josiah around 620 BCE. However, in July 1981, a riot broke out at this location between Jewish archaeologists excavating the passage and Muslims who could descend a staircase from the Temple Mount to Warren Gate (a staircase dating back to the Herodian construction of the Second Temple). Consequently, excavations in this section were halted by order of the Israeli government, which had not been informed of the plans to excavate this disputed passage, which was immediately resealed. Moreover, once these plans became known, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in New York, advised putting a stop to them. He had warned that whoever found the Ark of the Covenant would be putting their life in danger.

Just beyond this place of prayer, one sees the medieval cistern, its stone walls covered with plaster (to best protect the drinking water). Looking up, one can see two openings through which water could be drawn from the cistern from houses built above this medieval cistern and against the Western Wall. Why two openings? Because two houses had been built, and therefore each had access to the cistern through their respective opening.

The two openings for drawing water from the medieval cistern

After the cistern, the long tunnel that now runs alongside the Kotel was also excavated starting in the 1970s. Visitors walk alongside the Kotel, admiring the stonemasons' work and the lack of mortar between the flat stones. This section, which was buried under debris from the Romans' attempt to destroy the Kotel (at one point, a glass window in the ground reveals the stones piled up after being detached and pushed from the top of the Kotel), contains Herodian stones so neatly cut and free from any erosion or subsequent damage that it's hard to believe they are 2,000 years old.

Along the way, one also notices that the mountain rock gradually encroaches upon the Herodian construction until the Kotel disappears completely: only the mountain remains. The tunnel was bored along the extension, leading to another structure at least 2,000 years old, dating back to the Hasmonean period, thus predating the Herodian constructions. This is a cistern. During the Second Temple period, it was essential to bring in pure water for the Temple service. Where did this water come from? Rainwater, which filled this cistern during the winter months, and also from external basins used to retain this water (including the Pools of Bethesda). And, of course, an underground tunnel was needed to connect the external basins to this cistern. At the level of this cistern, a stone railing can be seen, which protected passersby from falling into the cistern, visible several meters below.

We have seen that, in Herod's time, the construction of the Antonia Fortress necessitated cutting off this underground water tunnel because the water used in the Temple was brought from permanent springs in the Judean Hills rather than relying on the seasonal winter rains to fill the northern cisterns. As a result, this Hasmonean cistern dried up. However, above the cistern and protected by the stone railing, we can see the remains of a Herodian street that ran alongside the Western Wall. Two Herodian columns are still visible and may have been part of a colonnade, or part of a planned colonnade, along this street. The paving stones are certainly authentic, and it is possible that Jesus and his disciples walked along this street, which dates from the Second Herodian Temple period.

Authentic Herodian paving

At the end of this street, after a few meters, you come to an old quarry that was used to cut the large Herodian stones directly from the bedrock. You can see stones there that had begun to be hewn but were never finished. Why? Most likely, the work was stopped after the death of King Herod in 4 BCE.

An old quarry abandoned in 4 BCE

Above the quarry, a projection room has been set up to show a short film explaining the cutting of the stones from the rock, their transport using gravity, and their on-site shaping to refine them.

After the quarry, the tour sometimes ends, and visitors retrace their steps to return to the visitor center. However, it is possible to continue along the underground path, which no longer extends from the Western Wall but follows the Hasmonean canal used to transport water between the outer northern basins and the inner cistern, utilizing gravity between the interconnected water reservoirs. The further one walks along this waterway, the more the humidity increases (evident in the greenish color of the walls carved into the mountain rock).

Water supply tunnel from the Second Temple period

Finally, we arrive at a rainwater basin: the Struthion Pool. This basin is located at the foot of the rock that once supported the Antonia Fortress, and it is the only remaining vestige that was in use during the fortress's time. Before Herod's construction, this basin, measuring 52 meters by 14 meters, was open to the sky, and people could descend into it via steps carved into the rock. Because of the natural slope between the northern and the southern sides on this mountain, the basin is 4.5 meters deep in the north and 6 meters deep in the south.

Struthion Pool, Hasmonean period (Second Temple)

This pool is linked to the water supply system established during the Hasmonean period, although parts of this system were already in use during the First Temple period, which also relied on rainwater for cultic purposes. When building the Antonia fortress, Herod retained this Struthion Pool, presumably to supply the garrison with water. However, the new fortress then formed an obstacle for the flow of water from other external basins, such as the one at Bethesda, located slightly further north than the Antonia.

Where does the name "Struthion", which means "sparrow" in Greek, come from? The Judeo-Roman historian Flavius ​​Josephus, a witness to the Roman siege of Jerusalem, in 68-70 CE described it and gave it this name:

For there were then four great walls, one of which was at the Antonia Tower; this one was erected by the Fifth Legion, facing the middle of the pool called Struthius. (Josephus, The Jewish War, V, 467)

The discovery of pre-Hasmonean (Seleucid) and Hasmonean coins in the rubble of the pool, as well as the similarity between the local mortar and that used in other Hasmonean cisterns and baths in Jerusalem, suggests a pre-Herodian origin for the Struthion Pool.

Finally, after climbing a series of steps, we exit the underground tunnels and reach the current ground level opposite Stations 2 and 3 of the Via Dolorosa. This marks the end of the tour.

You can reserve the day and time of your visit through an online booking system. If you do not understand Hebrew or English, the options are limited, but you can choose a tour guide who will handle the reservation for your visit, regardless of the language, as your private guide will provide you with explanations during the tour.

We can end this article with a 5-minute film showing period footage tracing the Kotel between 1911 and 2011. To view it, click on the image and, above all, turn on the sound to hear the singing of Psalm 137 of David: If I ever forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand fail me, may my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not always remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

Albert Benhamou

Private Tour Guide in Israel

November 2025