The Madaba map, a detailed mosaic from 542-570 found on a Byzantine church floor in Jordan, shows the location of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Nea Church, the Cardo Street and much more. One the details portrayed on the Madaba map is another Roman street to the east of the main Cardo street, which has thus been called the Eastern Cardo Street. In 2007 a major colonnaded street running under the west portion of the Western Wall Prayer Plaza was uncovered during the early construction stages of a public service building. It appears the Eastern Cardo Street has been discovered. On the Madaba map this street runs northwest along the Tyropoean Valley to a place where it connects with
the Cardo street in a large paved area with a large Roman pillar in front of the Damascus Gate (which was known as the New Gate – i.e., Nea Gate – in the year 333 AD) in the north.
Notice the pavement in front of the Western Wall Plaza can be seen at the top of this photo. This helps identify the location of this ancient Roman, or Byzantine, Road |
