Jerusalem is the city home to the Western Wall, a common site of public Hanukkah candle-lighting.
The Western Wall is an ancient retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City. In Jewish tradition and practice, its plaza is one of the world's most important places for prayer and pilgrimage. The wall is commonly called the Kotel, from the Hebrew word for wall, and is also known by other names in different historical and religious contexts.
Most of the visible structure belongs to the large Temple Mount platform expanded under Herod the Great in the late first century BCE. The wall is not the surviving outer wall of the Second Temple itself; it is a retaining structure that supported the enlarged platform on which the Temple stood. This distinction is a frequent source of confusion.
Public Hanukkah ceremonies at the Western Wall often include lighting a large hanukkiah, the nine-branched lamp used during Hanukkah. A hanukkiah differs from the seven-branched menorah associated with the ancient Temple. Jerusalem is therefore central to both the historical story of the Maccabean rededication and modern Jewish observance.