"When you come to the money-changers, quarter where David Street ends, there is a street called Mount Zion, because it leads directly to Mount Zion, and on the left of the money-changers' quarter there is a covered vaulted street called the Street of the Vegetables - the place where they sell the city's vegetables, fruit and spices. At the upper end of this street, fish is sold. And behind the fish market there is a great square on the left, where they trade in cheeses, chickens, eggs, and birds. To the right of this market are the shops of the Syrian silversmiths, and here they also sell the dates which the pilgrims take with them across the sea... before the money-changers' quarter, near the Street of the Vegetables, there is a street called the Street of Bad Cookery (Malquisinat). There is also a covered street here where they sell cloth, and it is completely vaulted." This colorful description leads us to the three markets which are now called the Butchers, Market, the Spice Market, and the Silversmiths, Market. The markets were built in the Crusader period along the line of the Cardo, the city's main street during the Byzantine period. Some of them were built at the order of queen Melisande. Some of the shops were given to the monastery of St. Anne, built by the queen's sister Yvette. If you look carefully, you can find pillars with the monastery's name engraved on them. |
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