The Common people and the poor made their home in the very densely crowded Jerusalem’s Lower City, an area built along the Western Hill and stretching into the Tyropean Valley. The houses were made out of limestone houses and were yellow-brown colored from years of sun and wind. To the east was the City of David, and on the elevated land to the West, the Upper City was built.

During King Hezekiah’s day, a tunnel was built to channel water from a spring in the City of David to the Pool of Siloam in the Lower City. This pool provided the water supply for the city.

It is very likely that Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Last Supper in the famous Upper Room in the Lower City. Jesus brought his message of hope to the Lower City when he healed a blind man by placing mud in his eyes and asking him to wash at the Pool of Siloam.

Along the Small Market Street in the Lower City, you would pass many open-air shops where the city’s artisans sat at work: the weavers, dyers, potters, bakers, tailors, carpenters and metalworkers. A colorful bazaar was located further down the street where merchants sold fruits and vegetables, dried fish, sacrificial animals, clothes, perfumes and jewelry.

The market street was always crowded and busy, especially on Mondays and Thursdays, the main market days, when citizens and visitors came there to buy goods or souvenirs. Perishable goods were on sale every day except the Sabbath when the streets were empty and quiet.

If you had traveled a long way, you could stop to rest at one of Jerusalem's many taverns or restaurants. There you could select from a menu offering fresh or salted fish, fried locusts, vegetables, soup, pastry and fruit. You could drink local wine or imported beer.

Like their rural cousins, the farmers of Jerusalem, went out each morning to tend their crops. Most of them worked in the rich olive groves that covered the surrounding hillsides and provided the city's only major export.

Jerusalem's numerous artisans were organized into professional groups and most of them worked in public shops. The members of each group lived in a cluster of houses in a particular section of the city and they usually had their own synagogue.