quote:

the Southern Wall is part of the original temple and has stones which are from the time of Ezra and Nechemiah if not earlier.

I never heard this. I would be interested in knowing the source for this.

quote:

Is the Southern Wall in the now-still-Arab part of the city?

The southern wall is not in the arab part of the city. It is on the other side of the mount.

http://www.greatcommission.com/israel/2003045.jpg

B"H

The southern-most wall, for those who asked about it, is presently cordoned off by Israel's Department of Antiquities, and there have been extensive excavations carried out in that part of the wall. It is mostly off-limits, but if anyone dares jumping the low rail-fence, he can get inside. I've actually done this several times. The Arab village of Silwan (Siloam, or שילוח) is adjacent to that side of the wall, just across the road that runs perpendicular to the wall. The last time that I dared to go inside this village, while en route to the running spring of שילוח, my friend and I were attacked by Arab stone-throwers! Luckily, we were not hurt as we made haste our escape.

Quote: "Herod... wished to expand the mount which was round by the use of retainer walls to hold a lot of dirt to support his platform, the Western wall being one of them."

Aryeh, my understanding of this is that it was only the northern parts of the temple mount that were expanded, but not the western side of that mount which makes up the verge, or limits, of today's "Western Wall." Thus is it stated in Josephus. Besides, the temple precincts on that mount were actually 500 X 500 cubits square, according to the Mishnah, which measurements would have included the parametres of the "Western Wall," with that of the entire southern corridor.

David

It is obvious that all the stones are Herodian in the western wall down to the ground as seen in Warren's shaft. The southern wall (which has guided tours everyday as far as I know) has stones from several eras. In the most southeastern corner are a set of unusual stones which is assigned to the time of ezra. For many years, a picture of the stones was always on the cover of the Palestinian Archeological Quarterly.

B"H

Aryeh,

Perhaps you misunderstood me. The stones of the Western Wall may, indeed, be from the Herodian period, originally built as a retaining wall, as you said. However, he did not expand the Temple Mount at this place. He either replaced the original stone fortifications, or built on top of the old ones. It was only towards the north of the wall where the Temple Mount was enlarged.

David