Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered a theater dating back nearly two millennia underneath the city's famed Western Wall, providing valuable clues to the Roman influence on the city.

"From a research perspective, this is a sensational find," excavators with the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement this week about the discovery. "The discovery was a real surprise."

As part of ongoing excavations of the areas around Jerusalem's Temple Mount and Western Wall, archaeologists had been digging in the area to look for clues to help accurately date an ancient stone arch in the area that was part of the temple complex, writes Vittoria Traverso of Atlas Obscura. In the search roughly 26 feet under a section of the Western Wall, the team unexpectedly stumbled upon an "extraordinary theater-like structure."

The theater is relatively small by Roman standards, seating about 200 people, reports Rinat Harash of Reuters, and unlike the culture's famous amphitheaters or auditoriums, was enclosed with a roof. This likely meant that the structure either a building intended for musical performances or for local city council meetings, according to the archaeologists. The building was painstakingly carved out of stone, but puzzlingly it appears to have never been finished.