Food Poisoning in the Crusader Market
One of the most picturesque and colorful areas in the Old City of Jerusalem is the three markets. The butchers' market, the perfume market and the goldsmiths' market are located next to each other in three narrow and crowded alleys, located between the Christian quarter and the Jewish quarter.
The three markets are built along the route of the Cardo, the main street of the city in the Roman and Byzantine periods. In the 12th century, the Crusader Queen Melisende expanded the western part of the Cardo, splitting it into three narrow parallel streets, and built a series of covered shops. Melisende also dedicated some of the profits of the market shops to the monastery of Santa Anna she founded near the Lions' Gate, and even today the letters SA carved on some of the vaults to indicate this can be seen. At the northern end, the three markets merge into Beit Habad Street, which is still used today as one of the main markets of the Old City and runs through the Muslim Quarter to the Damascus Gate.
The crusaders and pilgrims describe the dirty and crowded three markets, and one of them was even called the "Bad Cooking Market" due to the dirt and bad smells that prevailed in it. Apparently, this is the place where you could find a quick meal, and perhaps get food poisoning, in Crusader Jerusalem.
The route of the markets was preserved even after the fall of the Crusader Kingdom and the conquest of Jerusalem by the Muslims, and remains to this day. The butchers' market contains, apart from meat shops, other foodstuffs and household items, the perfume market has mainly shops of clothes, jewelry and electronic items, and the goldsmiths' street consists of fabrics and clothes shops.
(Anecdote authored by: עמיר)
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