The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, is a portion of ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem that forms part of the larger retaining wall of the hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount. The term Western Wall and its variations are either used in a narrow sense, for the section of the wall used for Jewish prayer, or in a broader case, referring to the entire 1,601 ft. retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount.