For the Jewish people the Western Wall is the holiest site in the world; the place closest to the Holy of Holies from the First and Second Temples and the retaining wall of the Temple Mount. Paul Calvert was taken through a detailed tour of the Western Wall tunnels in Jerusalem by local guide, Miri Sacks. They re-visited its history and looked at its popularity today with pilgrims from around the world.

Paul: What are the Western Wall tunnels?

Miri: In order to understand we have to go way back in history and understand where it all began. It all begins right over here on a mountain in Jerusalem called Mount Moriah. According to Jewish tradition the world was founded from the peak of this mountain 5771 years ago and this is where lots of the tradition happened. Tradition such as the sons of Adam, Cain and Abel came and brought their offerings at the peak of the mountain. This is the place where Noah comes to after he exits the ark to bring his offerings. This is the same place where the binding of Isaac and the dream of Jacob take place and this is the location where King David came to Jerusalem and conquered the city. King David's son Solomon builds the First Temple at the peak of that very same mountain. That Temple was destroyed and years later re-built; this we call the First Temple and later on the Second Temple when it's re-built.

The Western Wall only comes about at the end of the Second Temple time, when the Temple stands at the peak of the mountain. Surrounding the mount a huge platform is built. This platform you're probably familiar with; today it is called the Temple Mount and it is surrounded by four walls. These four walls are named the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western Walls and that is the Western Wall today. The Western Wall is a retaining wall of the Temple Mount and the wall we are most familiar with today. The exposed part of the wall is simply 1/8th of the Western Wall.

The Western Wall tunnels are an archaeological dig alongside the wall. The reason we need a dig is because there have been homes built right next to the Western Wall in the past 700 years. When we established the State of Israel in 1948, Jerusalem was divided in two; literally there was a wall right in the middle of the city and only 19 years later during the six day war we come back to Jerusalem and we finally get a chance to find our history. That is when we start the dig under these homes; of course constantly re-enforcing what is here, not harming anyone and finding our history and everyone's history here in Jerusalem.

The tour at the Western Wall tunnel begins with a topographical map of Jerusalem and builds on top of the Western Wall an entire history of Jerusalem. Once we go into the tunnels we have many different stations along the way showing you what you have just seen at the topographical model. Along the way you will be walking under 700 year old arches where you will be looking down at a room that leads back to Jerusalem 2,800 years ago; for example you will be walking under a bridge that today holds shops in the Moslem quarter, yet underneath it holds 1,300 year old arches from the early Moslem period. Each and every one of these stations led us closer into history and closer to the Western Wall.

Along the way you will be meeting many people in the tunnels. They will be coming on different tours or they will come to pray and you'd be surprised at how many people. They go outside to the Western Wall plaza normally to pray, but inside the Western Wall tunnels we have a small section designated for women to come inside to pray in days of rain and days of major sun.

The visitors here, we are very proud to say, come from all over the world. I believe this is not by chance. When King Solomon built the First Temple his prayer was that this should be a house of prayer for all nations and his prayer was that anyone that comes to this place, may his prayer be accepted regardless of whether he is worthy of it or not and I believe that is what brings us here today to Jerusalem.

As we continue into the tunnels we reach an electronic model of the Temple and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There you will be able to learn about the different history that happened throughout the years and see and understand more deeply what the Temple was and what it meant to the Jewish nation.

The first half of the tour I would say leads you towards the Western Wall and I believe this is not by chance. When we used to go up to the Temple Mount you would have to prepare yourself physically and spiritually beforehand, so here when we get a chance to come to the holy Western Wall, we get a chance to prepare ourselves and thus half of the tour leads us to that point. Once we reach the Western Wall we start walking alongside the wall and we get an opportunity to understand the history of Jerusalem. The history is literally written on the wall.

We begin with stones. The first layer of stones that we can see led us back to the Herodian time in Jerusalem; that is 2,000 years old. Later, we carry on to the closer generations to us, the early Moslem period, which could be 1,300 years old, but in Jerusalem that's almost yesterday. We carry on and we see the Western Wall and a mosaic of what happened in Jerusalem. It tells us the history just by standing; for example if you look at the Western Wall you could see frames etched in every one of these stones indicating this is the signature of King Herod.

We also have a magnificent and I think a very rare thing in the Western Wall tunnels. There is one very large stone; not only is it very large, but it is incredibly heavy. This stone is the third heaviest in the world and its 4.6 metres deep and 13.5 metres long. What is most impressive about it is that it's probably the heaviest stone in the world that is actually on top of a building. In other words it is in its actual location and when most people come here they are very impressed by the weight and the size. I don't know if I want to ruin it and tell people how much it actually weighs, but it is quite a few hundred tonnes. When you come and visit here you will hear the entire story of the stone itself. What amuses me more is the top of the stone is not a perfectly etched stone and at the time of King Herod he would never have put up with that. What we see on this stone is the actual destruction of Jerusalem that happened in the year 70.

When the Romans came to Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, they not only wanted to destroy the Temple itself, but its surroundings as well. We find that they bury much of the Jewish existence of Jerusalem and when they come to the Western Wall and they are not able to move these hundreds' of tonnes of stones, instead of dropping the stones from the Western Wall they actually start etching and destroying the stones. That's how much they tried to bury the existence here in Jerusalem. Looking at it today, when you can actually see the destruction that happened here 2,000 years ago, you actually see the history right in front of your eyes; you see the stories that you've learned all these years and we get a chance to stand right in front of it.

Once we start walking alongside the Western Wall we are going to see an ancient gate that used to lead up to the Temple Mount. This gate also has a history of its own. When we used to come to Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, this is one of the places we would ascend to the Temple Mount from. Throughout the years we were forbidden to stand in Jerusalem even though we very much yearned to stand in this place. When you stand across the gate it will be a little bit difficult to realise you are standing by a gate because it is blocked. This has been blocked for the last 900 years.