To understand thoroughly what happened to the Nazarene at the khan, the reader must be reminded that Eastern inns were different from the inns of the Western world.

They were called khans, from the Persian, and, in simplest form, were fenced enclosures, without house or shed, often without a gate or entrance.

Their sites were chosen with reference to shade, defence, or water.

Such were the inns that sheltered Jacob when he went to seek a wife in Padan-Aram.
Their like may been seen at this day in the stopping-places of the desert.

On the other hand, some of them, especially those on the roads between great cities, like Jerusalem and Alexandria, were princely establishments, monuments to the piety of the kings who built them.