14 George Dahl, 



Almost directly east of ancient Dor, near the ruins called 

 Dreihemeh', is one of the rock-cut passages, leading to the plain 

 to the east'. This is the most southern of the passages cut through 

 the ridge. It is apparently of considerable antiquity, with rock- 

 cut tombs and guard houses in the sides. The average breadth of 

 the passage is fifteen feet, its height ten feet and its length about 

 two hundred feet in all. Near the entrance to this cuttins: is a 

 semi-circular apse cut into the rock^ The radius of this apse is 

 thirteen feet five inches; two steps lead up from the present floor 

 to the surface of the rock. At each end and in the middle of the 

 semicircle are square holes, evidently intended for pillars. The 

 presence of a quarry to the west containing stones not quite broken 

 out of the rock lends weight to the suggestion that the work is an 

 unfinished basilica. 



The whole ridge near Dor seems to have been extensively used 

 as a quarry for the ancient town. In some places considerable 

 quantities of stone have been removed. Here, too, was the princi- 

 pal necropolis of the city*. A large number of the tombs are still 

 preserved, though all have been plundered. Some of them are 

 single, while others contain a number of "kokim" or burial cham- 

 bers. In many of the kokim the stone has been left higher at one 

 end, to form a sort of stone pillow. 



Between the modern city and the ruins of ancient Dor there has 

 been discovered a large and interesting tomb\ It is a chamber 

 fourteen and one-half feet wide by nineteen and one-half feet 

 long. There are on the left five kokIm, each measuring seven feet 

 by three feet; at the -back there are three, and at the right four. 

 In the four corners of the chamber are four smaller chambers, ap- 

 parently double kokim, for receiving two bodies each. The en- 

 trance to the tomb is a long passage descending by steps to the 

 door. The door is square, with an arch above it outside. On the 

 left of the entering passage is another koka, also measuring seven 

 by three feet. Bones and skulls were found in the tomb. In the 



^ Arab. *| ff^v^ (diminutive form), meaning a small silver coin ; Greek 



^S.W.P. Mem. II, p. 11. 



» Dr. G. Schimiacher in P.E.F.Q., 1889, p. 191; is this the "excavation 

 resembling a small theater" mentioned by Murray {Handbook, 1875, p. 358)? 

 -'Guer., Sam. 2:308. 

 ^S.W.P.Mem. II, p. 10. 



