Image Details

Garo Nalbandian

A gutter beside the present-day entrance to the cave allowed water used in olive pressing to run outside. The iron grate partially visible at left covers a large water cistern below the cave. Water poured down from the roof, along a small drain cut in the outside north wall of the cave, through a pool and into the cistern.

Two layers of mosaic fragments—one above the gutter and one at left, with a partial Greek inscription that probably reads “K(uri)e anapaus,” or “Lord, grant rest”—date to the Byzantine period (324–640 A.D.), when this area was covered over.