Area C2. A yellow-colored level (L102; elevation c. 47.6 m; Fig. 8) was exposed throughout the entire area of the square after the removal of modern refuse layers (thickness c. 2 m). The level, similar to the one in Sq C1, L101 (above), seems to have been a deposit intended as fill and foundation for the leveled floor of the courtyard in its last phase of use. Nonetheless, relative differences occur in the elevation of the entrances to the rooms of the wings to the south and north. The entrance to the room at the southern end of Sq C2 was c. 0.5 m (48.23 m) higher than the entrance to the northern hall (Sq C1).
Adjacent to the room’s wall, below the bedding layer, the wall’s foundation and the foundation of the opening to the room (Fig. 9) were exposed at a higher elevation (0.5–0.8 m) than those of the northern hall. Like the foundation of the wall in the northern wing, the foundation here was composed of stones and bonding material that was wider than the width of the wall. Beneath the opening of the room were stones arranged in an arch, similar to the arch exposed in the opening to the northern hall. It is clear from the plan of the building that the northern and southern wings were not parallel. Cross-vaults, having a broad span and supported by well-built pilasters, were used in the construction of the northern wing, whereas the southern wing was built of narrow cross-vaults, without pilasters. It therefore seems that despite the similarity in the construction technique of the two wings’ foundations, it is apparent that they were built at different times. Furthermore, it seems that the southern wing was a later addition to the building and that during its construction a large amount of earth was added to the courtyard in order to level the area between the northern part and the new southern part.
Most of the pottery fragments recovered from all of the soil deposits and the pavement of the building dated to the Ottoman period. Potsherds from the Mamluk and the Early Islamic periods, as well as earlier potsherds were also found. However, based on the large quantity of potsherds from the nineteenth century, the earlier potsherds were probably brought to the site along with soil fills from the vicinity of the building and were not necessarily connected to the khan structure.
Several clay pipes from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were also found, as well as a gold coin dated to the thirtieth year of Mahmoud II rule (1808–1839; Fig. 10), which came from a fill mixed with modern finds in the area of the opening to the northern hall.
The excavation revealed two distinct pavement layers in the courtyard: the kurkar level (L101a) that may be related to the cement surface in Area C1 and the stone pavement (L109), both dating to the Ottoman period. It was ascertained that the courtyard was paved with tamped earth surfaces and stones, as seen in sections of Floor 109 in Areas C1 and C2. The plan of the building, the asymmetry between the northern and southern wings and the difference in the depth of the foundations between the courtyard’s southern and northern parts indicate that the northern wing predated the other wings and the southern wing was added in a later phase. To add this wing and prepare the courtyard, artificial fill was probably needed and the southern wing was built into it. The western side of the courtyard was delimited, at least in the last phase of the khan’s use, by a group of buildings whose rear wall simultaneously served as the enclosure wall of the courtyard. These buildings were visible in a 1936 aerial photograph of the city and one of them was exposed in the excavation.