Much of Capernaum remains to be unearthed, but what we have shows a town planned roughly according to the Hippodamic pattern: the streets run either parallel or perpendicular to one another, forming regular squares or insulae. Within these blocks, small houses surrounded an open courtyard. Typically, an extended family would have lived in the complex, sharing the courtyard, where most days of the year the members would have done their cooking, eating and household work -- and perhaps also much of their sleeping. In Mark 2, Jesus is teaching in a house while a crowd of sick people waits outside in the courtyard.