Room 1

. The shape of this room, its two entrances and the outline remains of an earlier wall in its middle indicates that it was originally divided into two rooms. At a later stage, when the partition wall was destroyed, the two small rooms were combined into one larger room that eventually was connected to Room 2 on its north. During the final stage, a tunnel was quarried on the southern side of Room 1, but never completed. The refuse from hewing the tunnel was found in the form of qirton chips next to its entrance. The actual use of these relatively small rooms is unclear.

 

Room 2

. Little work was done in Room 2, since it accessed the excavation of the other rooms and the debris on its northern side could not be removed for safety reasons. Visible immediately inside the entranceway are stairs and a small banister that curves curiously to the west, in the direction of the room’s western wall. Room 2 does not appear to have been originally connected to either Rooms 1 or 3. The connection to Room 3 is a small robber's hole in the southwest corner and the opening into Room 1 may have been quarried away at another time, since the chisel marks are distinctly different in the two rooms.

 

Room 3

. The large entrance (height 2.74 m) to this room (3.5 × 4.5 m) was in its eastern wall. Initially, it was filled to within 1 m of the ceiling and had been subject to recent looting. A niche visible on the southern wall may indicate that this room was originally a corridor to Room 4 on its west and at a later stage, its floor was lowered.

 

Room 4

. This room resembles a water cistern (diam. 6 m; Fig. 2). Twenty-four stairs in good condition and a partially broken banister were cleaned down to bedrock floor. The room has neither a shaft in the ceiling nor a channel to bring water inside. If it was a cistern, the water would have been brought through Room 3; however, the floor of Room 3 is much lower than the threshold leading into Room 4, suggesting a different function.

 

The actual use of Room 4 is still questionable. While it appears to have been designed as a cistern, its walls are not plastered and no means for the entering of water is observed. This phenomenon, as well as the signs of quarrying noticed on the floor, exists in other subterranean systems around Maresha, which appear to have functioned as quarries for the insulae or dwellings above. In addition, the exceptional condition of the stairs would have shown signs of wear even with minimal usage, due to the softness of the qirton. Hence, it appears as if Room 4 was hardly ever used.