While the view in this week’s video takes in Jerusalem’s Old City as a whole, one landmark stands out along the skyline: the ancient citadel known as the Tower of David. Rising just beyond Jaffa Gate in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City, this fortress has watched over the city for more than two thousand years.

Though its name calls to mind Israel’s great king, the massive stones beneath the citadel actually date to the reign of Herod the Great, who built a lavish palace complex on this site over two thousand years ago. Byzantine Christians later misidentified the hill as biblical Mount Zion and mistook Herod’s palace for David’s, and the name has endured ever since.

Some historians believe this may be the very location where Pontius Pilate held his judgment seat and tried Jesus before the crucifixion, a possibility rooted in the ancient historian Josephus, who described the Roman governor residing and presiding over judgment at Herod’s palace.

Today, the citadel houses the Tower of David Museum, established in 1983 to tell the sweeping story of Jerusalem across four thousand years. Walking through its restored halls, visitors move through layer after layer of the city’s history—Canaanite, First and Second Temple, Roman, Byzantine, Muslim, Crusader and Ottoman—each brought to life through archaeological finds, high-tech displays and reconstructed courtyards. Ongoing excavations at the nearby Kishle site, once a Turkish prison, have even uncovered what’s believed to be part of the original palace, dating to around 23 BC.

At the top of the citadel’s Phasael Tower—named after Herod’s brother, one of three towers he built alongside towers named for his wife and a close friend—visitors are rewarded with one of the most breathtaking panoramic views in the Old City, where ancient stone gives way to the modern skyline of Jerusalem stretching beyond the walls.

The site has become known for the way it brings history to life. Its dramatic courtyards have hosted immersive exhibits from artists around the world. Few places on earth hold as many centuries within their walls. As you watch this week’s episode, remember that the very stones seen behind us have stood through conquest, destruction and rebuilding, a fitting background for a city whose story is still being written.