 The wall has been a site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage for centuries ; the earliest source mentioning this specific site as a place of worship is from the 16th century . The previous sites used by Jews for mourning the destruction of the Temple , during periods when access to the city was prohibited to them , lay to the east , on the Mount of Olives and in the Kidron Valley below it . From the mid @-@ 19th century onwards , attempts to purchase rights to the wall and its immediate area were made by various Jews , but none was successful . With the rise of the Zionist movement in the early 20th century , the wall became a source of friction between the Jewish and Muslim communities , the latter being worried that the wall could be used to further Jewish claims to the Temple Mount and thus Jerusalem . During this period outbreaks of violence at the foot of the wall became commonplace , with a particularly deadly riot in 1929 in which 133 Jews were killed and 339 injured . After the 1948 Arab @-@ Israeli War the Eastern portion of Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan . Under Jordanian control Jews were completely expelled from the Old City including the Jewish quarter , and Jews were barred from entering the Old City for 19 years , effectively banning Jewish prayer at the site of the Western Wall . This period ended on June 10 , 1967 , when Israel gained control of the site following the Six @-@ Day War . Three days after establishing control over the Western Wall site the Moroccan Quarter was bulldozed by Israeli authorities to create space for what is now the Western Wall plaza . 
