The function of this colonnade remains uncertain. Petrie thought in terms of a colonnaded street, a poor relation of the grand avenue at Palmyra. Against this are the low base running across the colonnade, seen on Petrie’s plan, and the attached half-column at the western end, seen in the photograph; such half-columns are expected on the ‘show’ façade of a structure, not tucked away at the back. In association with the building-repairs accounts no.4441 in vol.LXIV of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, we wonder whether the colonnade might represent the Northern Stoa, that is one of four covered colonnades that enclosed a large square like a cloister, but that interpretation too has its difficulties.
F.Petrie, Tombs of the Courtiers and Oxyrhynkhos (1925), pl.XXXV