Built in 1938 with a grant from American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller Jr, this graceful Mandate-era building outside the northeast corner of the Old City walls houses one of the most important archaeological collections in the Middle East. The artefacts span 500,000 years of human habitation in the region — Stone Age tools, Bronze Age Canaanite objects, carved ivories from Megiddo, Byzantine mosaics, and crusader-era sculptures removed from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for protection.
The museum is less visited than the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem, which makes it a more reflective experience. The octagonal tower at its centre and the arcaded stone galleries are fine examples of Mandatory architecture. The Dead Sea Scrolls were brought here after their discovery in 1947 before being moved to the Shrine of the Book. Entry is free, and the largely unchanged 1930s display cases give the museum the feel of a time capsule of a different kind of archaeology than is practised today.