One of the wonders of Jerusalem is that wherever you tread, you know you’re walking atop thousands of years of history.
Nowhere is that truer than inside the Kishle, a former Ottoman and British Mandate-era prison that now forms part of the Tower of David Museum complex, which is situated just inside the Old City’s ancient walls, not far from the bustling Jaffa Gate.
Inside the eerily quiet 500-square-meter stone structure, beneath majestic arched ceilings and illuminated by sunlight streaming through the old prison’s barred windows, Jerusalem’s extraordinary history unfolds with striking clarity, layer by layer, down to its very beginnings.
During the final weeks of 2025, a team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority who have been excavating the site reached the bedrock. It revealed an imposing Hasmonean-era wall – one of the most complete and longest sections of the city’s first external wall to be discovered to date.
Now, with all the layers of Jerusalem’s history fully revealed, archaeologists and museum officials are preparing the site for visitors. The space will form part of a new wing focused on exploring archaeology and innovation.
“This is a great opportunity to create a site-specific show so that [visitors] can see the connection between today and all the layers of history here,” Eilat Lieber, the museum’s director and chief curator, who is the visionary behind this ambitious project, told The Jerusalem Report during a recent visit to the museum.
Still under lock and key, accessible only to those working at the site, the Kishle, which was built in 1834 and retains the Turkish name for “barracks,” is reachable either via a rickety metal staircase that leads to the top level or through a newly forged doorway to what was once ground level.
Lieber, who was involved with initial excavations here more than 20 years ago, envisages a visitor space with a glass floor so that the ancient stones are protected but visible underneath, and a laser light show above that will highlight Jerusalem’s various eras, from the Hasmonean period, also known as the Maccabean period, beginning around 140 BCE, through to the present day.
She hopes that a mix of artistic renditions and historical explanations will also capture some of the mystery of this site’s past and give visitors a feel for what it’s like to be an archaeologist as they analyze the ancient clues left behind.
Tracing the various milestones from the prison-level walls down to the newly discovered Hasmonean one, Lieber emphasized: “This place is important to our identity and helps us understand how we got here.”
Monumental discoveries
This is not the first time archaeologists have uncovered something monumental within the walls of the Kishle.
When museum officials first opened the abandoned building’s creaking wooden doors in the early 2000s, they were greeted with chilling English, Arabic, and Hebrew graffiti etched into the stone walls, testament to the desperate prisoners held first by the Turks and then by the British.
Later, as the digging progressed, the prison floor revealed more ancient layers below, which included fabric-dyeing basins from Crusader times, and then an intricate underground sewage system that most likely underpinned the sprawling palace built by the eccentric Herod the Great, king of Judea under the Roman Empire.
One of the most compelling finds is a spot that some believe was the scene of one of the more famous stories of the New Testament: the trial of Jesus.
While today there is growing consensus among Christian spiritual leaders, historians, and archaeologists that the trial took place near the Tower of David and the former prison, over the centuries Christian pilgrims designated other holy spots in the Old City where they thought the trial took place. Over time, those areas became entrenched within religious beliefs.
The misinformation might have stemmed from the various interpretations of the Gospels, which describe how Jesus of Nazareth was brought before Roman governor Pontius Pilate in the “praetorium,” which some believed to have been the military barracks, while others say it was more likely to have been Herod’s Tower of David.
The debate over the exact site of Jesus’s trial is not the only dilemma that has surfaced as digging at the Kishle progressed. As with many archaeological excavations, the argument arose over whether to keep removing the layers or to stop and preserve what had already been uncovered. At this site, the decision was made to keep some of the finds intact but also to continue removing layers.
The latest find, the Hasmonean wall, was discovered after renewed archaeological excavations at the site in late 2025. Amit Re’em, Jerusalem’s chief archaeologist, who led the dig along with Marion Zindel, said that while the 40-meter-long, five-meter-wide wall confirms some of Jerusalem’s history detailed by 1st-century CE historian Josephus, it also introduces some new mysteries.
“It is clear that it was systematically destroyed and razed to the ground,” Re’em said. But, he added, “This is predetermined destruction – not the result of the ravages of time nor of a random enemy attack, but a deliberate execution of a well-planned action. This raises questions about who was responsible for the wall’s destruction.”
Re’em and Zindel offer two main explanations for who may have commanded this destruction, and under what circumstances. One is that it was dismantled by the Hasmoneans themselves as part of a settlement with Antiochus VII Sidetes, according to the writings of Josephus. The other, they say, is that Herod, seeking to distinguish his rule from that of the Hasmonean kings before him, deliberately destroyed the monumental city wall as a political statement.
Whatever the reason, fortunately for today’s world, parts of the wall were left intact. Thanks to modern archaeological tools such as radiocarbon dating, experts are able to determine more precisely the date of the building materials, and within the next two years the very first layer of Jerusalem’s remarkable history will be on display.
“We are committed to preserving this impressive and unique site and allowing the public to experience this tangible link to Jerusalem’s past spanning thousands of years,” said Lieber of the project, which is being funded by the Schulich Foundation in Canada.
She said it will offer future visitors “a new connection to the history and heritage of the city.”
“There is no other place where you can see the link between us and King Hezekiah so clearly,” she said, referring to the powerful ruler from the Hasmonean period.
“People must be able to enjoy the past, and our challenge is to bring it back to life again,” she concluded. ■