Warning of 'multiple cracks' after boulder falls, Zachi Dvira says people should not be allowed near holy site ...

 -- neither in the mainstream prayer pavilion nor at Robinson's Arch

Archaeologist Zachi Dvira, head of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, told The Times of Israel on Monday after inspecting the Western Wall following the fall of a Herodian-era stone that the whole area is a “danger zone.”

View of the site where a large chunk of stone dislodged from the Western Wall in Jerusalem at the mixed-gender prayer section on July 23, 2016.
View of the site where a large chunk of stone dislodged from the Western Wall in Jerusalem at the mixed-gender prayer section on July 23, 2016. © Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

On Monday morning, a boulder fell from the Western Wall onto the Robinson’s Arch egalitarian platform, which is located in the Davidson Archaeological Park alongside the Wall. Captured on film, the rock landed very close to a female worshiper there.

The fallen boulder weighed about 220 pounds (100 kilograms), Israel Radio said. It damaged the platform on which Daniella Goldberg, 79, was praying.

The incident came a day after the platform was filled with worshipers marking the Tisha B’Av fast, which commemorates the destruction of the two Jewish temples in Jerusalem.