Nearly two dozen Israeli technology companies set up shop among the 2,000-year-old stones of the Tower of David Museum, providing an extreme take on old meets new this week in Jerusalem.

The event was the launch of the Tower of David Innovation Lab, a groundbreaking collaboration between history and high tech at the Tower of David Museum, which for 30 years has anchored Jerusalem’s Old City and served as the official keeper of Jerusalem’s four millennia of history.

Located at the political, historical and religious epicenter of the country, the Tower of David Museum, housed within the walls of the Old City in the medieval citadel known as the Tower of David, tells the story of the history of Jerusalem. Two years ago, eager to refresh its image and attract a younger and more tech-savvy audience, the museum took a deep digital dive and adopted new technology, including augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) equipment, to refresh its 30-year-old exhibition and make itself more relevant to young, smartphone-addicted visitors. In 2016, the museum launched the nation’s first museum-sponsored hackathon, inviting companies to set up shop for a frenzied day of brainstorming and inspiration.

Riding on the success of those initiatives, museum staff have now decided to go one step further. Rather than simply adopt existing technology for use within the museum, they brought the tech companies into the fold and used the museum’s archaeologically rich campus as a laboratory for new innovation for the next 12 months — or longer if the pilot project is extended.