In this cave at the foot of the al-Habis Mountain, many rectangular niches were carved in the walls and then plastered. The exact function of this monument is unknown, although one theory is that the niches may have held ashes from cremated dead. Columbaria were common in the first and second century AD in the Roman Empire. Many Romans belonged to funeral societies that allowed them the privilege to be buried in a columbarium. Funerary niches were often embellished with dedicatory plaques and statues of the deceased.