Just a Wall?

I enjoyed the Dec. 20 article “On Holy Ground” by Jim Schachter. Just a week earlier I had spent two days wandering around the Old City of Jerusalem. It was my second visit and I agree with Schachter that it is a historically exciting and spiritually inspiring city. However, I believe Schachter made a significant error when he referred to the Western Wall as “the sole remnant of the Herodian Second Temple of the Jews, destroyed by the Roman emperor Vespasian in the year 70.” The Western Wall is part of the retaining wall surrounding the Temple Mount and was never actually part of the temple itself. The Second Temple stood on top of Temple Mount, roughly in the same location as the 1,300-year-old Dome of the Rock.

While in Jerusalem recently I took an excellent archeological tour of the Herodian remains of the Temple Mount walls (offered by Archeological Seminars, Ltd., 34 Habad St. in the Old City). When the archeologist leading our group explained the relationship between the Second Temple and the Western Wall, a young man from New York was genuinely surprised to find that what he had previously been taught (what Schachter wrote) was not exactly true.

JAMES E. LANCASTER

Tustin