I found out about the Saxum center at the IMTM-2019 tourism exhibition in Tel-Aviv, where it was presented as a new interactive center dedicated to the period of Second Temple and Jesus story. 

I was intrigued, but also confused – usually Christian places of interest in Israel are positioning themselves separate from the Judaism. While more then a million tourists from Christian countries come to Israel every year, unfortunately few of them actually understand the links of Jews to Christianity and the links of Jesus to Judaism and the Roman conquest of Judea. 

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When we say "the Old City of Jerusalem" we picture the Jaffa gates, the ramparts, The Holy Sepulcher Church, Via Dolorosa, etc. But the walls of what we know now as "the Old City" are actually not so old – they were build in the 16th century A.D., when Jerusalem was took over by Ottoman Turks and ruled by Suleiman the Magnificent.

Let's go deeper in history – to the tenth century B.C.  This was the time when King David conquered the city of Jebus from Jebusites tribe, renamed it to Jerusalem and established it as the first capital of the United Kingdom of Israel. For the first time the twelve tribes of Israel are unified to one state. Just imagine, this was 3000(!) years ago. Two and a half centuries before Rome was even founded! 

The real ancient Jerusalem – the City of David – is located just outside the Old City Walls, 5 minutes walk from the Dung Gate.

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An archaeologist working in the Old City of Jerusalem resembles a kid in a candy shop – everything around is so exciting! Although when in 1999 the archaeologist Amit Re'em started the excavations of Kishle – former Ottoman military barracks (the word "kışla" in Turkish means "barracks") he did not expect to find anything extraordinary.

Reality exceeded expectations by far. 17-meter-high archaeological section, which visitors of the "Tower of David" museum can see now, is a "layered cake" of all eras of Jerusalem's history. 

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