There is no real need for storerooms to be long and narrow nor to have walls two metres thick. In fact, it must have been rather awkward getting oil or grain out of large pithoi in such cramped quarters. The reason for the layout is apparent when you look at the ground plan. The magazines are laid out in a series of staggered blocks, each of which is pretty nearly square. It was clear to Evans that these reflected the shape of the rooms on the floor above. The close spacing of the walls below was designed to support the columns that would have been needed to hold up the ceiling of large halls such as these.

Left: Magazine with symbol of a cross carved at the entrance