This slab floor seems to be the western continuation of floor 5522 from the other side of the opus reticulatum wall (5302). The floor is clearly planned together with the drainage channel (5600; 5580) immediately to the north, and formed a kind of landing at the base of the staircase leading from the middle to the upper terrace. Apart from the staircase, access to this space would certainly have been possible by the threshold at the northern end of Room 6 (5491). The question of access from the east is still an open one, since the space east of the slab floor there (5467/5522) has been almost entirely robbed, and is difficult to reconstruct. At the western limit of these slabs, the bedrock becomes irregular, and sits at a much higher level, suggesting that the slabs could not have continued in the same way any further west. Again, the nature of the space immediately to the west of this floor is one of the major questions remaining, and is central to the understanding of the complex.

Because of the tight alignment of the blocks, and the smooth surface, we believe this layer to be a floor.