The Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem

The Jewish quarter is one of the four quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem, the other three are: the Muslim, Christian and Armenian. Jews have been living in this quarter for about 2,800 years!!! The quarter contains the Western Wall or in its Hebrew name - Kotel.

Obviously, you don’t need to be Jewish in order to find the quarter interesting. If you already visited the Kotel, here are a couple of interesting sites I would recommend you to visit:

The Burnt House

This is a fascinating archeological site. In here you can find the remains of a house that belonged to the well known (at the time) Kathros family. The Kathros were a Jewish wealthy priestly family, and their house got burned when Jerusalem was conquered by the Romans. You can find there remains dating back to 70CE including: furniture, coins and vessels.

The audio-visual presentation is quite real too, and you will be able to learn from it about the events during the revolt against the Romans.

Cardo

The Cardo or Cardo Maximus in its full name, means ‘the main line’ in Latin. It is the main street that runs from North to South during the Roman rule of Jerusalem. The Cardo was established in the 2nd CE as part of the rebuilt Jerusalem – that was now called Aelia Capitolina by the Romans. It was built on the ruins of Jerusalem following the Jewish revolt of 70 CE.

The Cardo was the center of trade in the city, and contained many shops and vendors on both sides of the street. I guess it was somewhat like today’s mall. Today once again the Cardo has shops operating in it, close to the archeological findings that contain rows of Roman columns, stone floor and arches.