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Cardo Modern shopping
center
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The central street of the Cardo is 12 meters wide and is lined on both sides with columns. The total width of the street and shopping areas on either side is 22 meters, the equivalent of a 4-lane highway today. This street was the main thoroughfare of
Byzantine Jerusalem and served both residents and pilgrims. Large churches flanked the
Cardo in several places.
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A portion of the Cardo has been rebuilt as a modern shopping center. Jewish storekeepers sell fancy souvenirs and keepsakes to tourists "for a good price." This street continues north to Damascus Gate; as it leaves the Jewish Quarter it becomes the division between the Christian and Muslim Quarters. As in ancient times, this street is still the main one in the Old City, but today it is much narrower than it once was.
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A 6th c. church floor in Madaba, Jordan has a mosaic map of the land of Israel with numerous place names in Greek. The center of the map is an open-faced depiction of
Jerusalem with the city walls, gates, churches (with red roofs), and the
Cardo. This main street of the city is depicted with two rows of colonnades running the length of the city from north to south. |
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The original Cardo in Jerusalem ran along the northern sector of the
Roman City. It began from a square inside the city's main gate - today the Damascus gate - and crossed through the entire city to the south. In the middle of the square, was a high pillar; when the Moslems conquered
Jerusalem in the 7th century the gate was renamed "Bab elAmud" (The Pillar Gate).
The gate, the square with the pillar, and the Cardo are depicted in detail on the colored mosaic map of
Jerusalem, found in 1884 in a
Byzantine church in Trans-Jordanian Medabah.
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