Jerusalem: aerial view

This photograph of the Old City of Jerusalem shows the Temple Mount and Dome of the Rock in the background and the Western Wall Plaza in the center of the picture. The Western Wall (also called the Wailing Wall) is the western side of the Temple Mount. Because the Temple Mount complex is sacred to Muslims, and religious Jews do not want to inadvertently walk on the space where the (Jewish) Holy of Holies was located in the Second Temple period, the Western Wall Plaza became Judaism's most holy site and place of prayer.