Many limepits were sunken in the ground at a depth of between 2.5 and 5 meters and 3 to 4.5 meters in diameter, in a circular fashion, and some were built with a retaining wall along the inside for support, usually constructed of uncut field-stones. Simpler limepits were made without supportive walls. In the following account, Abu-Rabiʻa describes the practice of Bedouins in the Negev, during the late 19th and early 20th-century:
In Palestine, the principal fuel used to keep the lime-kiln burning was the dried brushwood of prickly burnet (Sarcopoterium spinosum) and savory (Satureja thymbra), where often camel loads of this dried wood would be hauled to the lime-kiln. Monolithic stone structures were already in use for burning limestone (nāri) during the Ottoman period, throughout the Levant. Modern kilns for burning lime first appeared in Palestine during the British Mandate.