About The Pavement (Lithostrotos)

When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). John 19:13, NIV

The remains of a Roman pavement under the Convent of the Sisters of Zion, in the Muslim Quarter, is identified as the Lithostrotos, meaning stone pavement in Greek. It is made of large flagstones that were specially etched to prevent horses from slipping.

King’s Game

The Roman soldiers would have played the “Game of Kings” on a flagstone that was inscribed with a circular pattern of etchings. This was a dice game in which the playing piece was a prisoner, mocked as a “made-up” king – exactly as happened with Jesus (Mark 15:16-20). Here, Jesus suffered at the hands of the Roman soldiers.

Struthion Pool

Beneath the stone pavement is a subterranean cistern for water collection. The cistern is probably the Struthion Pool described by Flavius Josephus, the 1^st century Jewish historian, as the water supply for the Roman army stationed at the Antonia Fortress.