Page "Western Wall" Paragraph 8

According to the Tanakh, Solomon's Temple was built atop the Temple Mount in the 10th century BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple completed and dedicated in 516 BCE.

Around 19 BCE Herod the Great began a massive expansion project on the Temple Mount.

In addition to renovating and enlarging the Temple, he artificially expanded the platform on which it stood, resulting in an enlarged enclosure.

Today's Western Wall formed part of the retaining perimeter wall of this platform.

In 2011, Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of Roman coins minted well after Herod's death found under the massive Meleke foundation stones in the southern section of the wall inside a ritual bath which predates the construction of the renovated Temple Mount complex and was filled in to support the new walls.

This indicates that Herod did not build the entire wall and that construction was not close to being complete when he died.

The finds confirms the description by historian Josephus Flavius, which state that constructions were finished only during the reign of King Agrippa II, Herod ’ s great-grandson.

Herod's Temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire, along with the rest of Jerusalem, in 70 CE, during the First Jewish-Roman War.