Jerusalem’s Cardo, reminds us of the power of Empires to impose their cultural norms. Wherever it ventured the Roman Empire built its cities to a specific plan. Central to ,that plan was the Cardo, a north-south main road surrounded on both sides by commercial shops. In Jerusalem’s Old City it is possible to walk the route of the Cardo from close to the Zion Gate, in the south, all the way to the Damascus Gate in the north. At certain points in the Jewish Quarter Cardo one can walk upon the original paving stones laid down by workers in the 6th century. At other points, in the Moslem Quarter,  the Cardo still functions as a market street.