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We residents of the Jewish Quarter derive tremendous pleasure from the fact that our children play on the ruins of the Roman Empire!!!! Look down from Chabad Street on to the ancient columns and main north-south artery (yes, Cardo as in cardiologist!) of Roman-Byzantine Jerusalem. This street, which served as a market place many, many years ago, was identified with the help of a 6th century mosaic of Jerusalem found in a church in Madaba in Jordon . A reproduction of the mosaic is on the wall facing the screen in the covered section leading to the modern day stores. Each civilization that came to Jerusalem reused the remains and ruins of their predecessors. Two excellent places to see this are in the Cardo. The covered section in the middle with the wooden beams shows a wall comprised of many different levels of stones from different periods. The excavated eastern section shows the broad wall from the Temple period and arches from the Cardo, buried under Crusader and Mameluke foundation and buildings. Below is a more detailed desciption of the Cardo taken from the Jewish Quarter Deveopment Company website: The Cardo was a double-columned main thoroughfare that traversed many Roman cities from north to south. Jerusalem’s Cardo starts at what is today the Damascus Gate in the north, traversing the city southwards up to today’s Zion Gate. Jerusalem’s Cardo is depicted in the Madaba Map, a highly detailed mosaic map that was the floor of a Byzantine church in the town of Madaba, currently in Jordan. The Madaba Map is the oldest known detailed cartographic representation of Jerusalem The northern section of the Cardo extends from today’s Damascus Gate to David Street, and dates back to the Roman period. The southern section extends from this point alongside the western side of the Jewish Quarter and was built during the Byzantine period, in the 6th century AD. Excavations in the Jewish Quarter between Habad Street and The Street of the Jews revealed irregular sections of the Byzantine Cardo for a length of 180 meters. The Cardo had an open central passageway for use by carriages and animals, and was adorned on both sides with porticoed footways for pedestrian use. The street is paved with slabs of stone and ha a width of 22.5 meters. In several sections, domed shops were found to the side of the footway. In the southern section, buildings from later periods were removed and the Byzantine Cardo level was revealed. Some of the columns were reconstructed and restored. It is possible today to stroll through the Cardo in the same manner as Jerusalem’s residents would have done in the sixth century AD. The Crusader bazaar, built in the twelfth century on top of the Byzantine Cardo, was cleared from the northern section and a commercial center was built. The shops in the modern commercial center offer a range of modern products, but are steeped in history.
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