IAA offers sneak peek tours of long-awaited new campus
Official opening of facility near the Israel Museum in Jerusalem still at least a year away
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
The Israel Antiquities Authority is offering limited tours this summer of its Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, a new and modern facility, long under construction next to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the IAA said in a press release.
It is the first time the general public has been invited to visit the new campus, which broke ground in 2010. Designed by veteran architect Moshe Safdie, the campus covers an area of 36,000 square meters (388,000 square feet) and features a unique tier-like design of three staggered courtyards, designed to mimic the process and feel of an archaeological excavation.
When fully opened — an IAA official told The Times of Israel that will be “a year or two” in the future — the campus is to be the central focal point for archaeological activities and education in Israel, with a series of galleries, laboratories, display rooms and storage centers.
The campus is to house the National Library for the Archaeology of Israel, a central repository of artifacts and writings, which is to include a specially designed storage facility for the Dead Sea Scroll fragments not on display at the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book.
In the meantime, the tours offer a guided tour of parts of the facility, viewings of some ancient mosaics on display, a visit to a preservation laboratory, and a glimpse of some recent findings, including amphorae jars that were brought up from an ancient Mediterranean shipwreck a few weeks ago.
Historically, the IAA has spread its Jerusalem offices between the technological park at Har Hotzvim, the Israel Museum, and the East Jerusalem Rockefeller Museum. When the new campus is fully opened, all of the IAA’s main offices, storage facilities and laboratories are to be consolidated into the central location.
The opening of the new facility has been delayed for many years. According to a report in the Haaretz newspaper from several years ago, completion of the NIS 400 million ($106 million) campus has been delayed because the state has pledged only a small portion of the necessary funding, necessitating ongoing IAA fundraising efforts to finish the project.
An IAA official declined to comment, but confirmed that “funding” issues have been the cause of the long delay in opening.
The hourlong tours, in Hebrew, begin Monday, July 1, and are to run throughout the summer break. The tours are geared toward families and children aged 8 and up, with registration available on the IAA website. The tours cost NIS 15-20 per person, and are being planned in English and other languages, depending on demand, the IAA said.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
