A rock-cut tomb or koka is a burial chamber that is cut into the living rock usually along the side of a hill. It was a common form of burial for the wealthy in ancient times in several parts of the world.
Important examples are found in Egypt, most notably in the Valley of the Kings.[1]
Other notable clusters include the rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel, the tombs at Myra in what is now Turkey and the ancient tombs that line the hillsides of Petra in modern Jordan.
A kokh (plural: kokhim, Hebrew: כּוּךְ) is a type of tomb complex characterized by a series of long narrow shafts, in which the deceased were placed for burial, radiating from a central chamber. These tomb complexes were generally carved into a rock face, and were usually closed with a stone slab and had channels cut into the centre of the shaft to drain any water that seeped through the rock. Several examples of Kokhim can be found in the Palestinian territories and Israel. For example, one third of a Kokhim complex survives at the far west end of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem; the Church wall runs through the centre of the complex, and the remaining two thirds no longer exist.
More examples can be found throughout the Judean foothills