This street is 1,400 years old!

Like I've said before, you never know what you'll find walking through the Old City of Jerusalem, especially in the Jewish Quarter!

This time it was the Cardo, the 40-ft wide, colonnaded main street dating back to the Roman Era. It's called this because it was the main street, or the heart of the city. This is where we get words in English like, "cardio" or "cardiologist", and other words referring to heart. All ancient Roman cities had a cardo, and this was Jerusalem's (once it was rebuilt under the Romans). According to BiblePlaces, this was the main thoroughfare for Byzantine (Talmudic Era) Jerusalem. ItravelJerusalem.com says it would have stretched from the Damascus Gate to the Zion Gate, and its existence is proven by the Midba map in Jordan. In addition to shops, large churches lined the street.

Today, the street is about 6 meters (20 feet) below the current street level, showing how much the level of the Land has changed in the past 1400 years. 

The north side of the Cardo is from the Roman Era, dating back to Constantine. It has not been excavated. The south side, where we walked, is from the time of Emperor Justinian is Byzantine Era.

Part of it has been rebuilt to include shops. There's so much art lining this part of the Cardo, and it was all so beautiful! I wanted to get a piece of my own!

Along the sides of the Cardo are older remains form earlier eras... 

The older looking ruins (above) are from the 1st Temple period!

The newer ones (above right) are Hasmonian (the 400 -100 BC)

There are also places to look down and see what is directly below the cardo:

1st Temple period!

This is from the 2nd Temple Era... can you see difference in craftsmanship?

Farther down were murals on the walls lining the cardo:

And, let's not forget the areas with the original stones!

Amazing!

It was so cool, I decided to join the crowd:

*information from BiblePlaces and itraveljerusalem.com.