The Cardo Maximus was the main thoroughfare of the Emperor Hadiran’s 2nd Century CE Aelia Capitolina. It was a wide, stone-paved and colonnaded road that led through the heart of the city from the north at the Damascus Gate to the south with an unknown end point.
The southern end of the road was excavated in the 1970s during the reconstruction of the city’s Jewish Quarter. Excavators uncovered a section of the road, now located below ground level and accessible for visitors to walk upon today. This section of road was dated to the Emperor Justinian’s rebuilding programme of the 6th Century CE to link the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the newly constructed Nea Church. It should therefore be viewed as a later addition to the original Roman road as no evidence of an earlier pavement was excavated below.
Creator
Lucy O'Connor
Date of Visit
9th July 2013
Contributor
Lucy O'Connor
Rights
Metadata and all media released under Creative Commons
unless otherwise indicated
Type
Archaeological Site
Tags
Aelia Capitolina, Byzantine, Byzantine Road, C2nd, C6th, Cardo, Column, Excavation, Hadrian, Jerusalem, Justinian, Roman, Roman road, Stone
Collection
Item Type
Architecture
Citation
Lucy O'Connor, “The Cardo Maximus (Jerusalem's main thoroughfare),” Architecture and Asceticism, accessed December 30, 2024, https://architectureandasceticism.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/862.