DAY ONE

7/10

We began the first day of our trip with a tour of the Old City.  As was the case last year, our professor Julie's cousin, David, is our tour guide.  David led us through the Souk, the marketplace of the Old City, until we reached the Jewish Quarter.  Once in the Jewish Quarter, the main road of the ancient city becomes apparent.  The cardus maximus, was the main North-South road of all Roman cities in antiquity.  The standard width of these roads was approximately 36 feet.  They were lined on both sides with a colonnade, in the case of Jerusalem, with corinthian columns.  This colonnade was then covered with a wooden frame, supporting a clay tile roof, thus creating shelter for shops and venders.  The cardus maximus in Jerusalem ran from the Damascus gate, 

in the North, to the Zion gate, in the South.  

After walking the remnants of the cardus maximus, we went to the Wohl Museum of Archeology.  This museum is underground, beneath apartment buildings and such.  The museum shows the foundation walls and mosaic floors of Herodian-period, upper class Jewish homes.  This is the upper class world of the Pharisees where Jesus would have eaten on occasion, as described in the Bible.  This area of Jerusalem during the Herodian period was referred to by Josephus as the Upper or Western Hill as it occupied the western-most, highest point within the city, therefore catching the breezes, which made it ideal for the upper classes who could afford to live there.  

Following the tour through the Wohl Museum, we made our way down to the Western or Wailing Wall.  To the south of that area is the Davidson Center / Jerusalem Archeology Park.  This archeology park is situated at the south-western base of the Temple Mount.  Here, one may walk the actual road surrounding the Temple Mount where Jesus walked, and imagine the merchants selling animals for sacrifice at the Temple.