A plan of the Hammath Tiberias synagogue can be compared to a plan of an earlier synagogue on the site, which probably dates to the first half of the third century. The later synagogue used basically the same plan as the early-third-century synagogue but with some modifications. According to Moshe Dothan, excavator of the synagogue, “the single most important new feature in the [later] synagogue was the establishment of a permanent place for the Torah [shrine],” in the small room adjoining the nave.