In the Footsteps of Jesus - The Western Wall Tunnels in Jerusalem

The entire length of the Western Wall is 1,500 feet, almost a third of a mile. Today, we only see approximately 180 feet. The Western Wall Plaza that we all know today, where is the rest? Where did it disappear? Today, most of the Western Wall is covered by the houses of the Muslim Quarter. In just a moment, we're going to enter the Western Wall tunnels and uncover the rest of the Western Wall. A pilgrim ascending to the Temple Mount needs to purify himself beforehand. And so, anyone coming to Jerusalem has to bathe in a ritual bath, in Hebrew, a mikvah. Maybe Jesus himself bathed in one of these mikvahs. After walking a few seconds in the tunnels, we've reached the Western Wall. I'm standing near the largest stone found in the Western Wall. Its length is over 40 feet long. That is longer than a bus. Its height, almost 12 feet high. And its depth inside, 14 feet. How much does it weigh? Almost 600 tons. That is equivalent to 200 elephants, or to 10 tanks, or even to two 747 jumbo jets with the people and the luggage after shopping in Israel. This large stone was carved at a quarry in the northern parts of the Temple Mount, brought down, lifted up three stories high, placed symmetrically. And the big question is, how? We don't know. We are standing now in the closest place a Jewish person could get to the Holy of Holies while walking along the Western Wall. This is the holiest place in the Western Wall because perpendicular to this point, 200 feet in a straight line, is the peak of the mountain, is the foundation stone, where today the Dome of the Rock is located. So far, we've walked along the Western Wall, and now I'm touching the actual mountain, the bedrock. The Western Wall is above us. The Masons chiseled the bedrock to look like the Western Wall in order to create an optical illusion of continuity. These are original authentic tiles of the main marketplace of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Jesus himself might have walked through this market on his way to the Temple Mount. We're approaching now the end of the tour and walking through an ancient Hasmonean aqueduct that was created 2,200 years ago. We're talking about 200 years before Christ and King Herod. We've almost reached the end of the tour. We are standing now in a pool named Sderotian. The meaning of the name is small bird because we are now standing in one of the smallest pools in Jerusalem. 150 years ago, Captain Charles Warren arrives at this location, but he doesn't find clear water but a surface of slime and sewage. This is the basement of the Sister Zion Monastery above us. The pool and the monastery are located not far from the Lion's Gate and at the first station of the Via Dolorosa, the station where Jesus began his last walk before the crucifixion, where the Eke Omo Arch is. Captain Charles Warren tries to cross the surface by laying down wooden planks. The sisters above us hear noise from the basement and walk down. Surprisingly, they see two figures floating on the water and they get scared. They decide to block the entrance to the monastery by building this massive wall in the late 70s of the 1900s.