Huge Building Block Uncovered -- 570-Ton Wailing Wall Stone Called World's Third Largest

JERUSALEM - Archaeologists say they've unearthed one of the biggest building blocks ever used - a 570-ton foundation stone of the Wailing Wall.

The stone, estimated to be 45 feet long, 12 feet high and 15 feet deep, is the largest of five foundation blocks discovered in the wall in recent years, Dan Bahat, the head excavator, said yesterday.

Bahat said the stone was the world's third largest used in building, after a 700-ton stone used in the Roman Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek, Lebanon, and an obelisk built in ancient Egypt. However, Egyptologists say probably the largest surviving stone ever worked was a granite piece made into a 1,000-ton statue of Ramses in his mortuary temple. That would make the Israeli block the fourth largest.

The blocks used to build the pyramids were limestone and weigh on average 2 1/2 tons each, the largest weighing 15 tons.

The Wailing or Western Wall was part of the wall built by the King Herod around the hill on which the second Jewish Temple was built. Herod filled in the space between the hill and the wall to create a flat surface.

The Wailing Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, is the last remnant of the ancient temple destroyed in 70 A.D. To strengthen the structure against earthquakes, the five stones were lifted by huge wheel-like cranes into the middle of the wall, Bahat said.

Today, most of the wall is underground. But Israel has tunneled alongside it to reveal some sections.

Part of the 570-ton stone was uncovered previously. But last Thursday researchers discovered that the block was much larger than they believed, Bahat said. The archaeologists used sound waves to measure the party buried stone, and determined its weight by mathematical calculations.