The Western Wall, more commonly known as the Wailing Wall, is a sacred site located in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. It is one of the most important sites in Judaism and has been a place of prayer for Jews for many centuries. We walked the maze of crowded streets through Jerusalem’s Old City, passing though busy markets, visiting tombs and cathedrals, and absorbing a mixture of Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures. We proceeded through a security checkpoint where our bags were x-rayed, walked down a corridor and were spat out into the plaza of the Wailing Wall.

Seeing the old Jewish men pray to the wall was quite an experience. These men have spent their lives praying to the wall, it is a well known practice for men to pray for 40 consecutive days at a time. They calmly walk to the wall, open a book and begin prayer before walking to a different location and repeating the process. Although it seems like their actions are programmed, they move around with such purpose and wisdom.

Visitors to the wall stuff their written prayers into the cracks between the bricks. There are literally thousands of notes crammed into each crack along the wall. Gusts of wind blow the notes out of their places and into the plaza where they are swept up and disposed of by cleaners. Over one million notes are written and placed into the cracks of the wall each year.

There are a huge number of young people praying to the wall. Children run around playing in the plaza and then stop to rest against the bricks and pray. They cheerfully take photo’s of each other praying to the wall before skipping off again to cause trouble. A great amount of respect can be seen when a child walks up to one of the older men and begins praying in the same fashion side by side.

This man didn’t move from the wall for hours, his cheek and hands resting against the brick he appeared to be in some sort of a trance. His feet would repeat a tapping sequence, almost like a dance. It was quite a surreal sight watching him pray to the wall. His dedication to his religion must be at such a crazy level for him to pray like this, something I will never come to understand.

After spending some time in the plaza infront of the Western Wall I thought it was time to approach the bricks and touch it for myself. The bricks were smooth, worn down by millions of praying hands before mine. I stood for a minute with my hands on the wall just thinking about the history behind this place. A Jewish man was bowing frantically to the wall beside me reading from his book. The place is crazy, I have never seen anything like it before. It was actually somewhat of a culture shock for me as I have never witnessed such dedication by people to their religion. I’m not a religious person, but seeing such an iconic place as the Wailing Wall is something I will remember for a long time.