This marks the remains of a stately Nabataean private residence built in the early first century AD.Its basic plan is Hellenistic-inspired, with a peristyle court surrounded by receiving rooms and servant quarters and an area set aside for the house owner's private use. The latter occupies the mansion's southern perimeter and consists of a central vestibule flanked by two stately rooms. All three chambers, equipped with stone-paved floors, were embellished with decorative stucco and wall paintings imitating colorful paneled masonry. An architectural highlight of the house is found in a smaller,more centrally located room, which bears intricate wall paintings featuring fanciful illusionistic renderings of classical architecture, This painting style, well attested at Pompeii and in Rome of the age of Augustus (31 BC - 14 AD), has been locally adapted here. In contrast to its Roman counterparts, the paintings at Ez-Zantur are confined to a narrow zone of the lower wall.