Mareshah - Burial caves

On the western slope of the tell in Mareshah is a burial cave of the second century B.C., 32m/105ft long and 2.3m/7.5ft wide. The walls contain no fewer than 1906 recesses for funerary urns, and accordingly the complex is known, on the analogy of similar Roman tombs, as a columbarium.

In the valley on the east side of the tell two tomb chambers of the second century were discovered, one of which has wall paintings and carved urns and eagles on the front. The interior is in the shape of a reversed T, like some tombs at Palmyra, and contains 44 tomb recesses with Greek inscriptions. An inscription addressed by a girl to a young man suggests that the tomb had become a meeting-place for lovers.