The use of rock-cut tombs and burial caves was inherited by the Israelites from the Canaanites. However, while the Bronze Age Canaanite caves were mostly crude and undefined, deliberate modeling of rock-cut tombs can be seen in Israel and Judah. The most common typology included a square room which was accessed through a small square opening which could be closed by a large stone. Benches carved into the rock on three sides of the chamber provided space for three bodies. More elaborate examples had an additional rear chamber. Both cave and bench burials remained consistent in plan, body treatments, and categories of mortuary supplies throughout the Iron Age. The only variations were in relative wealth, and from the 9th century BC, some sumptuous individual tombs were excavated in Jerusalem and Gibeon, and twelve of these were probably for important political and/or religious officials (Bloch-Smith 1992). From Judah, the total number of graves reported is 24 cave tombs and 81 bench tombs from the 10th to the end of the 8th century BC, and 17 cave tombs and 185 bench tombs from the end of the 8th to the beginning of the 6th century BC (Bloch-Smith 1992). Most of the cave and bench tombs were located on the slopes of the Tell or in the nearby cliffs of the wadi. In rock tomb burials, the clothed and adorned body was placed near the center of a natural or excavated cave, and grave goods were placed around the body. These rock burials were predominant in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age centuries. However, from the 10th century BC, the number of sites with cave tombs declined as the bench tomb became more common. For the bench tombs, a square or rectangular door in a rock-cut façade opened into a square chamber of about 5 meters with a waist-high door... in the center of the card... is probably related to the development and the expansion of the western hill city during the 8th–7th centuries BC (Finkelstein & Mazar 2007; Mazar 1976). In this period, the cemetery in the Tyropoeon Valley most likely fell into disuse, while in the necropolis of the village of Siloam only a few dozen ornate tombs were built that served the highest decorations of the city's population. The city wall discovered in excavations in the Jewish quarter of the Old City does not indicate the exact extent of the city in this period, as remains of sparse and scattered settlements reach as far as the Hinnom Valley in the west, and present-day Muristan in the north. Apparently, at this stage the region to the west and north of these settlements was transformed into the main burial area of ​​Jerusalem until the destruction of the city by the Babylonians (Mazar 1976).