Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from The Times of Israel. This week, ahead of Sunday's observance of Tisha B’Av on Sunday, which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples, we go onsite in Jerusalem to the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

We speak with archaeologist Zachi Dvira, who is the co-director of the project. He’ll explain its controversial genesis and continuing struggle. At the end of our conversation, you'll hear as we wet sift a bucket of earth taken from the Temple Mount.

Founded in 2004 near the Mount of Olives, it’s now at a new location called Mitzpe Hamasuot, near the Hebrew University. The new site is easily accessible and has an auditorium and a shady picnic grove, which was made possible with the help of American Friends of Beit Orot.

Dvira calls for all who have not been to help sift through thousands of years of Temple Mount history to "hurry up!"

IMAGE: Visitors sifting buckets of earth from the Temple Mount at the relaunch of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, June 2, 2019. (Yosef Huri)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.