Total Destruction A reading of Flavius Josephus (Wars of the Jews) reveals a total destruction of the city of Jerusalem. Jesus did indeed speak of all the buildings of the Temple Mount but history shows that the whole city did not escape the wrath of the Romans---and God (Matthew 23).
The Romans leveled the city except for some towers to house the platoons of the Legions after the battles. (This occurred after the whole territory of Judea had been decimated. It wasn't just Jerusalem that was destroyed.)
Destruction of Jerusalem Thank you for your interest in a very important prophecy. There is probably a very little hyperbole involved here. However when read alongside the "whole counsel of Scripture" drastic adjectives make good sense. We especially refer to Matthew 24 where Jesus also said:
Jesus left the Temple and was walking away when the disciples came up to Him to call His attention to its buildings;
Do you see all these things, He asked? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down! (24:1-2)
The Temple was indeed destroyed to the max! And so were the other buildings on the Temple compound: the priests' homes, the sacrifice toolshed, the tithe storage barns, the temple tax treasury, the Sanhedrin meeting halls, the rabbi lecture halls, etc.
The Wailing Wall The Wailing Wall you see today is just part of the retaining wall holding the whole Temple complex that covered dozens of acres (built by Herod; but what is seen today is not Herod's stones, but the rebuilt wall constructed by the Crusaders and Moslem invaders! See Wikipedia, "The Western Wall").
Read Flavius Josephus, WARS OF THE JEWS, for a blow by blow description of the conquest of Jerusalem by the iron-booted Roman Legions. He was an eye-witness. The description Jesus foretold was just a drop in the bucket of the horrendous conflict and carnage wrought on the corrupt Jewish nation by the judgment of God.
Read also the dying words of Jesus as He made His way to the cross:
A large number of people followed Him, including women who mourned and wailed for Him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then 'will they say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us!
Records show that the whole city was demolished... famine, cannibalism, unburied bodies with blood flowing in the gutters...the people killed by the millions, or sent into slavery so much that the price of slaves decreased in Rome...eventually the Jews were forbidden to be in Jerusalem...the city was spread with salt so nothing would grow there!
Contradiction? There is no contradiction in the scripture concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem (not just the Temple, but all of Judea was conquered for 3 and 1/2 years). Jesus could have used more hyperbole, and not been overly-exaggerating!
I recommend you read Ray Grant's TIMES,THEY ARE A'CHANGING, and Marcellus Kik's MATTHEW TWENTY-FOUR., for verse by verse exposition, along with Josephus's book, WARS OF THE JEWS. Keep studying the Bible. It's good for the soul.
{Much later, Emperor Julian the Apostate leveled the Mount Calvary, (Golgotha) flat to the ground too, to keep pilgrims from coming there.}
NOTE: Archaeologists have dug up parts of a wall in the area known as the City of David which lies south of the Temple mount, which they believe to be part of David's palace. This would have been under ground during the time of Jesus. Jesus's threat was concerning the existing city of Jerusalem "above ground", and not concerning anything buried of old. So there is no contradiction or lack of fulfilment here. (See Biblical Archaeology magazines for their findings about David's palace, as well as other interesting finds: Pool of Bethesda, Hezekiah's tunnel, Caiaphas's tomb, etc.)
