I know you have a tight programme. But still…don’t forget to visit the Wailing Wall”, my host in Tel Aviv called out as I got into the cab to take me to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, in the era before Christ, had been the first capital of the then kingdom of Israel (as it is today of a democratic state). Jewish legend has it that the wise King Solomon, in 1034 BC, had built for his people a magnificent temple located on a high ground in the old city. Its site thus got to be known as the Temple Mount.

However, the Holy Land with Jerusalem as the prize had even then been coveted by Israel’s neighbours and wars over it were frequent. It is said that in 607 BC, when the Temple had been in existence for about four decades, a Babylonian Army under King Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem, occupied it and destroyed the Temple.

Considering the significance of the Temple for Judaism and its followers, the construction of a second Temple began at the same site in 515 BC, after Jerusalem had been retaken by the Jewish Kingdom. Jewish texts also speak of King Herod expanding the Temple in 19 BC, by building a retaining wall all around it. The second Temple, however, was not destined to last very much long thereafter.

In 70 AD, it was the Roman Army which sacked Jerusalem and, in the process, destroyed the Temple even more thoroughly. The only portion that remained was the western part of the retaining wall.

... contd.