Ze’ev Yeivin, courtesy of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums

Solutions to a roof problem. Many roofs at Chorazin were constructed from basalt beams, the local abundant material. Hard as it is, basalt is also brittle, and beams cannot be successfully quarried in lengths exceeding six feet. Therefore, to span a space more than six feet other methods were invented. Sometimes walls with arched openings were constructed about six feet from the wall of a room. Then basalt beams were placed with one end on the arched wall, the other on the room’s outer walls, doubling the potential width of the room. The other method involved construction of an internal wall in the room. This wall would serve the same support function as the arched wall. To allow light and air to penetrate the room, these internal walls were fenestrated with as many as three rows of windows. Here we see, at left, the lowest row of windows in the remains of a fenestrated wall and an intact arched wall to the right.