The Jerusalem apparent to the modern-day visitor is by no means the entirety of the city. Honeycombing the very ground on which today's pilgrims and tourists tread are the remnants of 3,000 years of continuous civilization, roads and houses and mighty edifices built atop each other by a cavalcade of rulers and conquerors ever since the dawn of recorded history.

Ground can scarcely be broken in Jerusalem without running into the bones of the past – especially in the Old City. Israeli archaeologists after the capture of the Old City in the Six Day War wanted to unearth and expose as much as possible of the Western Wall, and in the process of doing so they tunneled deep under the surface of Jerusalem and uncovered a wealth of historical treasures. That bounty has been made available to visitors through the Western Wall Tunnels.