Thousands of pilgrims each year walk under the Ecce Homo Arch near the beginning of the Via Dolorosa without realising that extensive remains of first-century Jerusalem lie beneath their feet.

Large sections of Hadrian’s plaza remain underneath the Via Dolorosa and adjacent buildings, accessible through the Ecce Homo convent of the Sisters of Zion.

 

The Roman flagstones of Hadrian’s plaza were once thought to be the Stone Pavement (Lithostrotos in Greek, Gabbatha in Aramaic) identified in John’s Gospel as the location where Jesus was condemned by Pilate. But it is more likely that Pilate judged Jesus at Herod the Great‘s palace, on the site of the modern Citadel inside the Jaffa Gate.