Image Details

The Madaba map of Jerusalem, dating from the 6th century A.D. Through the center of the city runs the Cardo. The mosaic even shows the unusual line of paving stones in the middle of the street similar to those Professor Avigad found. On either side of the broad thoroughfare, the map depicts a columned portico. At the left (northern) end of the Cardo is an oval plaza. In the plaza is a free standing pillar—erected by some pre-Constantinian Roman emperor whose statue originally stood on top of the pillar. In Byzantine times the statue was replaced by a cross, although it cannot be seen in the mosaic. On the other side of the plaza is the main northern gate of the city—now the Damascus Gate. The southern (bottom) side of the Cardo’s columned portico is broken in the center by the steps of a structure: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is depicted upside down with the dome of the rotunda at the bottom of the picture. On the right (southern) end of the Cardo are two churches: the Nea and the Mother of All Churches, both built by Justinian. The facade of the Nea breaks the upper (eastern) portico of the Cardo at the right. The little doorway in the angle formed by the Nea roof and the Cardo portico may mark the entrance to the hospice that was adjacent to the Nea. The Mother of All Churches is on Mount Zion, just beyond the western (lower) portico of the Cardo at the right.