A narrow street in the Jewish Quarter (credit: Noam Chen, rent-a-guide.co.il)
Welcome back to our virtual tour of Jerusalem! Today we are going to visit the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. As we leave the Via Dolorosa and travel past all the hustle and bustle of the Arab marketers, we come to a passageway leading to the Jewish Quarter. It is like entering into a completely different world. As we turn the corner from the Arab section and enter into the “high end” shopping district of the Cardo, everything looks clean, new and becomes much more expensive. No bartering here, just pay what’s on the price tag…but what an incredible place! This Cardo dates back to the Roman/Byzantine Empire. It was the main street of Jerusalem in those days. The Cardo went from the Damascus Gate on the north end of town to the location of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built by Emperor Constantine’s mother, Helena, in the 4th century. Then during the time of Justinian in the 6th century, he continued the road (the one we are on) all the way to the south end of Jerusalem and the NEA Church of Mary. He built a bigger and better church than that of Helena…but low and behold, today, they “paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” Yes, the remains of the church are under the current parking lot for the Jewish Quarter…to be left there for other excavations in later years.
As we walk through the domed ceilinged Cardo, we come to a place where if we look down through a Plexiglas window we will find two ancient city walls that butt up next to one another; the wall of Hezekiah from the 8th century BCE and the Hasmonean wall from the 2nd century BCE. This is an incredible find…to see two walls built 600 years apart touching one another!
Ancient map of the Jewish Quarter and the Cardo (approachguides.com)
We continue past all the shops (if you were here I would give you time to shop) and enter into a room with a beautiful mosaic map on the wall. This is called the Madaba or Medba map. It is a replica of a portion of a larger map that was found in the basement floor of a church in Madaba, Jordan. It dates to the 6th century and depicts a slightly “newer” rendition of a 4th-century map that was created from the information taken out of a book called the “Onomasticon,” written by Eusebius, a historian who lived in Caesarea during the time of Emperor Constantine. This portion of the map shows the city of Jerusalem as known in the 6th century, with the Cardo going all the way to the Holy Sepulcher and the NEA church. There is one thing eerily missing, though, the Temple Mount. That’s right…if you remember, the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE and was left in rubble until the 7th century….but why was it left completely off the map? We might never know.
When we arrive towards the end of the Cardo, we can see a beautiful painting of what the Cardo shopping area looked like during the Roman/Byzantine period. We can even stand on some of the original Byzantine stones left behind under the rubble of the destruction of the city. Interesting enough, we can also see a Crusader arched entry leading back into the shopping area we just left. This is a fantastic visual. While excavating in this area the archaeologists found that the Roman Cardo was three times wider than the one we just walked through. Yes, underneath all of the modern buildings built, after the Six Day War in 1967, there are remains of the rest of the Cardo on either side of where we are standing. The Crusaders came in circa 1099 and split the Roman street into thirds and made three narrow streets. I must say, I think the original street must have been pretty spectacular.
Jewish Quarter (credit: israel 21c)
Once we take the stairway up and out of the Cardo, we arrive in the heart of the modern day Jewish Quarter. Just before we get to the open plaza we come to an obscure site that looks like a large ditch has been dug out in between the buildings. If we look down into the ditch we see what looks like the remains of a very thick rock wall. The wall is about 7 meters thick and stands over 3 meters tall. Its original height is estimated to be as tall as the modern buildings on either side of us. And indeed this is a portion of the wall that Hezekiah built in preparation for Judah’s rebellion against Assyria in the late 8th century BCE! Wow, right in the middle of the modern neighbourhood of the Old City, we become a part of ancient history!
The bible talks about Hezekiah building this wall to protect the city from an imminent attack from Sennacherib, the king of Assyria:
“After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said. Then he worked hard repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it. He built another wall outside that one and reinforced the terraces of the City of David. He also made large numbers of weapons and shields. He appointed military officers over the people and assembled them before him in the square at the city gate and encouraged them with these words: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.” 2 Chronicles 32:1-8
The detailed account of the intended attack is found in 2 Kings 18. I say “intended” because the attack never actually happened. Hezekiah’s faith and leadership gave the Israelites the courage they needed to stand strong. And God’s divine intervention saved them from being attacked. It is quite an incredible story and a wonderful testimony to godly leadership. Reading the biblical stories and seeing the actual archaeology makes these stories become alive and real. They are truly life-changing. The experience is truly life-changing.
Next week we will continue into and “under” the neighbourhood for part 2 of our tour of Jerusalem’s Old City.
The Roman columns unearthed in excavations of the Cardo. (unknown)
