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IT'S AKIN TO going back in a magical time machine. A collage filled with glorious civilisations, complex political machinations and a humanity interwoven with rich cultural and personal intrigue. An area which saw the ancient armies of the Canaanites, Philistines,

Out of the remains of an ancient Roman garden filled with crumbling archeological pieces a museum is slowly being created. Filling the museum are artefacts, including anchors, coins, jars, pillars and mosaic tiles from the myriad dynasties which once controlled this area as a major Middle Eastern thoroughfare millennia ago.

At the restaurant adjacent to the museum, the view of the aqua waters of the Mediterranean lapping gently onto the soft white beaches as a gentle breeze stirs the palm trees is breathtaking. Sinking into the plush chairs, sipping on a delicious cocktail and watching the golden orb of the sun sink below the horizon, one could well imagine one is lapping up a luxurious five-star holiday experience on a Greek isle or perhaps enjoying a stopover during a cruise off Cyprus. But this is not your average Mediterranean holiday resort. This is where two men, against overwhelming odds and with tenacity, refused to let their dream die.

History aficionado, and successful businessman, Jawdat Khoudary together with his close friend, French archaeologist Alain Chambon, had a dream to build one of the first ever museums in Gaza despite Israeli bombardments, the despair and the constant conflict of his surroundings. Chambon recently spent 35 days in Gaza living with Khoudary and through the years has been responsible for collating and compiling the museum pieces. "I wanted to show the world another side to Gaza, other than the violence and chaos that people abroad see too regularly," Khoudary, told The Middle East.

The remarkable juxtaposition, of their museum and restaurant, is slap, bang in the middle of the poverty-stricken and war-torn refugee camp of 'Shati' or Beach camp in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Surrounding the museum are ramshackle apartments, blown-up buildings, pockmarked with rocket and bullet holes, sewage-filled gulleys and dilapidated jalopies, intermingling with the ubiquitous horsedrawn carts.

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And the neighbours are not genteel retirees, filling their days with golf and grandchildren. Heavily armed men in military uniforms, belonging to the Hamas Islamic resistance movement, sit at cross-sections talking into walkie-talkies, scrutinising the movements of all and sundry.

Gaza comprises layers of civilisation from the 4th century BC, when commerce with Egypt began. In the third millennium (the First Dynasty in Egypt), the area became independent of Egypt. Several Canaanite cities raised their defences but the city had its heyday under the Hyksos, the Syro-Palestinian authorities who controlled the area before the pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty conquered Palestine circa 1550BC.

Gaza then became an important urban centre in southern Palestine, where the Egyptian governor of the area had his residence. In 1200BC, invasions of Philistine or "Sea Peoples" began, helping to push the Egyptians out. In 734BC it became a gateway of the Assyrian empire into Egypt. The whole Near East eventually fell to the Persian empire in 538BC and Gaza was established as a terminus for caravans of incense, myrrh and exotic animals from Yemen, African slaves, Indian spices, Chinese silks and Greek and Cypriot ships bearing olive oil and wine. Alexander the Great conquered Gaza in 332BC, following which it became one of the most renowned Greek cities in the Orient. The Byzantine Empire ruled from 330-638CE. During the Umayyad Dynasty, in the late 600s, the city was known as "Hashem's Gaza", or the Gaza of Hashem Ibn Abdel Munaf, after the grandfather of Prophet Mohammed, who is buried there.

Gaza became a crossroads between two great Arab capitals--Cairo and Damascus--experiencing a new expansion under the Mamelukes. Following Vasco de Gama's discovery of new sea routes to India in the 15th century, Gaza lost prominence as a major thoroughfare for the Spice Route. The Ottoman Empire took over before they were ousted by the British in 1917, followed by periods of Egyptian and Israeli occupation. After the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) took control of Gaza in 1994, following the Oslo Peace Accords, Khoudary got together with Chambon.

Chambon, a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and a researcher with Ecole Biblique archaeological foundation, started carrying out excavations.

In 2006, the Japanese government and the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities, working with Khoudary and Chambon, began an archaeological project which culminated in an exhibition in Geneva, arranged by the Swiss Museum.

However, after Hamas took over Gaza in June last year, and Israel hermetically sealed the Gaza Strip, Japanese support for the project was suspended. Fortunately, prior to the Borders' closure, Khoudary had ensured that many of the museum pieces were returned to Gaza and is determined to continue building the museum even despite the embargo on construction materials.

As you enter the museum, Gaza's history is chronologically presented through the different time periods: stone anchors, from before Christ until the first century AD made of basalt or volcanic stone line the walls. Following the Roman conquest metal anchors then appear. Then clay jars from the Old Bronze period (3500-2250BC), Middle (2250-1600BC), and Early Bronze period (1600-1200BC) follow.

From 1000AD onwards the jars differ according to where they originate from. Phoenician jars from the Galilee down to southern Palestine are recognisable. At the time the Phoenicians had mastered international trade and commerce through shipping and overland trade. Their wine and oil jars, capable of holding up to 40 litres, were designed specifically to be stacked and bundled inside ships as well as transported by camels and donkeys. Excavations in Gaza have further uncovered jars originating from Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Gaza was regionally famous for its vegetable, dates, dried fruit and fish exports. But Gazan wine was renowned throughout the region and further. Legend has it that Caesar favoured Gaza's wine over other varieties.

The final display revolves around the diary of a young Gazan schoolgirl, Madiha Al Batta, 13, from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. She recorded a journey she and her family embarked on in 1937 which took them to Haifa, Beirut and Damascus by taxi, train and private car when the borders were open and travel was unrestricted.

There are blank spaces in the museum where pieces still on display in Europe are meant to sit upon return. As Gaza is hermetically sealed off at present, Khoudary is uncertain when this will happen or when the museum will be completed. "I had originally planned for the museum's completion shortly after the PNA arrived, but 14 years later here we are. However, the British museum was created over 300 years and I will fulfill this dream however long and whatever it takes," Khoudary told The Middle East.