Over a quarter of a million historical artifacts – with origins ranging from the Roman era to the end of the 19th century – have been discovered in the so-called Archeological Zone in front of Cologne’s historic City Hall. The Cologne city council’s now plans to build a museum in the center of the city and put the artifacts on display. The excavation site has been covered and an underground exhibition with a 600-meter tour has been built. The Jewish ‘MiQua’ museum is being built in a very appropriate location – on the adjacent site of the medieval Jewish Quarter. MiQua stands for Museum in
the Quarter – and sounds like the Hebrew ‘mikveh’, the name for a ritual immersion bath, an example of which was discovered during excavations.