Western Wall Excavations

Excavations around the Western Wall have revealed that the monumental wall visible today was only part of a much larger architectural system created during the expansion of the Second Temple Mount. Archaeologists have exposed its massive foundations, ancient streets, drainage channels, retaining structures, and buildings along the western side of the Temple Mount. Excavations near the southwestern corner have reached several meters below the ancient street level, revealing foundation courses and earlier remains beneath the Herodian-period construction.

The excavations have also transformed our understanding of the area surrounding the Temple. Beneath and beside the later plaza, archaeologists have uncovered remains spanning thousands of years, including Iron Age quarrying and settlement, the monumental Herodian complex, and later Roman and Byzantine streets and buildings. These discoveries show that the Western Wall was not an isolated structure, but the surviving edge of a vast sacred and urban complex that dominated Jerusalem and accommodated the movement of pilgrims, commerce, drainage, and monumental access around the Temple Mount.

Notable Sectors

Western Wall Plaza / Wilson’s Arch area
— the central section, including the excavations beneath Wilson’s Arch. Recent excavations exposed the Western Wall foundations, the arch pier, drainage systems, and earlier Hasmonean remains.

Southwestern Corner / Robinson’s Arch
— the southern end of the Western Wall, where the monumental Herodian street, Robinson’s Arch, stairway system, drainage channels, and Temple Mount retaining structures were investigated. The Western Wall foundations have also been exposed here below the ancient street level.

Warren’s Gate area
— inside the Western Wall Tunnels, north of Wilson’s Arch. Excavations here exposed Second Temple-period paving, drainage systems, and remains immediately west of the Temple Mount.

The Great Causeway / vaulted tunnels
— the large underground complex behind the western wall, including numbered vaults/rooms and structures supporting the ancient bridge system. Excavations have investigated areas such as Rooms/Vaults 3, 5, 6, 8 and 21, as well as the so-called Secret Passage.

The northern Western Wall Tunnels
— extending northward from the Wilson’s Arch/Warren’s Gate zone toward the Muslim Quarter and the northern end of the Temple Mount's western wall. Warren’s Gate itself is one of the major identifiable features in this sector.