diff --git a/man/machinectl.xml b/man/machinectl.xml
index 91bdb5e111..19531866c7 100644
--- a/man/machinectl.xml
+++ b/man/machinectl.xml
@@ -291,10 +291,10 @@
                                 name. <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
                                 looks for a container image by the
                                 specified name in
-                                <filename>/var/lib/container</filename>
-                                and runs it. Use
-                                <command>list-images</command> (see
-                                below), for listing available
+                                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>
+                                (and other search paths, see below) and runs
+                                it. Use <command>list-images</command>
+                                (see below), for listing available
                                 container images to start.</para>
 
                                 <para>Note that
@@ -488,7 +488,7 @@
                                 images. This enumerates all raw disk
                                 images and container directories and
                                 subvolumes in
-                                <filename>/var/lib/container/</filename>. Use
+                                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> (and other search paths, see below). Use
                                 <command>start</command> (see above)
                                 to run a container off one of the
                                 listed images. Note that by default
@@ -595,6 +595,51 @@
 
         </refsect1>
 
+        <refsect1>
+                <title>Files and Directories</title>
+
+                <para>Machine images are preferably stored in
+                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>, but are also
+                searched for in
+                <filename>/usr/local/lib/machines/</filename> and
+                <filename>/usr/lib/machines/</filename>. For
+                compatibility reasons the directory
+                <filename>/var/lib/container/</filename> is searched,
+                too. Note that images stored below
+                <filename>/usr</filename> are always considered
+                read-only. It is possible to symlink machines images
+                from other directories into
+                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> to make them
+                available for control with
+                <command>machinectl</command>.</para>
+
+                <para>Disk images are understood in three formats:</para>
+
+                <itemizedlist>
+                        <listitem><para>A simple directory tree,
+                        containing the files and directories of the
+                        container to boot.</para></listitem>
+
+                        <listitem><para>A subvolume (on btrfs file
+                        systems), which are similar to the simple
+                        directories, described above. However, they
+                        have additional benefits, such as efficient
+                        cloning and quota reporting.</para></listitem>
+
+                        <listitem><para>"Raw" disk images, i.e. binary
+                        images of disks with a GPT or MBR partition
+                        table. Images of this type are regular
+                        files with the suffix
+                        <literal>.raw</literal>.</para></listitem>
+                </itemizedlist>
+
+                <para>See
+                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+                for more information on image formats, in particular
+                it's <option>--directory=</option> and
+                <option>--image=</option> options.</para>
+        </refsect1>
+
         <refsect1>
                 <title>Exit status</title>
 
diff --git a/man/systemd-nspawn.xml b/man/systemd-nspawn.xml
index e67aeecb1a..0c6fb00289 100644
--- a/man/systemd-nspawn.xml
+++ b/man/systemd-nspawn.xml
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@
                                 <option>--directory=</option>, nor
                                 <option>--image=</option> is specified
                                 the directory is determined as
-                                <filename>/var/lib/container/</filename>
+                                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>
                                 suffixed by the machine name as
                                 specified with
                                 <option>--machine=</option>. If
@@ -247,10 +247,13 @@
                                 the root directory for the container
                                 from. Takes a path to a regular file
                                 or to a block device node. The file or
-                                block device must contain a GUID
-                                Partition Table with a root partition
-                                which is mounted as the root directory
-                                of the container. Optionally, it may
+                                block device must contain either an
+                                MBR partition table with a single
+                                partition of type 0x83 that is marked
+                                bootable, or a GUID partition table
+                                with a root partition which is mounted
+                                as the root directory of the
+                                container. Optionally, GPT images may
                                 contain a home and/or a server data
                                 partition which are mounted to the
                                 appropriate places in the
@@ -842,7 +845,7 @@
                 <example>
                         <title>Enable Arch Linux container on boot</title>
 
-                        <programlisting># mv ~/arch-tree /var/lib/container/arch
+                        <programlisting># mv ~/arch-tree /var/lib/machines/arch
 # systemctl enable systemd-nspawn@arch.service
 # systemctl start systemd-nspawn@arch.service</programlisting>
 
diff --git a/src/import/import.c b/src/import/import.c
index 669d7c152c..b4d859df1f 100644
--- a/src/import/import.c
+++ b/src/import/import.c
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 #include "import-dkr.h"
 
 static bool arg_force = false;
-static const char *arg_image_root = "/var/lib/container";
+static const char *arg_image_root = "/var/lib/machines";
 
 static const char* arg_dkr_index_url = DEFAULT_DKR_INDEX_URL;
 
diff --git a/src/shared/machine-image.c b/src/shared/machine-image.c
index a2f49e6e93..5112d24a8f 100644
--- a/src/shared/machine-image.c
+++ b/src/shared/machine-image.c
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ static int image_make(
         assert(filename);
 
         /* We explicitly *do* follow symlinks here, since we want to
-         * allow symlinking trees into /var/lib/container/, and treat
+         * allow symlinking trees into /var/lib/machines/, and treat
          * them normally. */
 
         if (fstatat(dfd, filename, &st, 0) < 0)
@@ -486,13 +486,13 @@ int image_clone(Image *i, const char *new_name, bool read_only) {
 
         case IMAGE_SUBVOLUME:
         case IMAGE_DIRECTORY:
-                new_path = strappenda("/var/lib/container/", new_name);
+                new_path = strappenda("/var/lib/machines/", new_name);
 
                 r = btrfs_subvol_snapshot(i->path, new_path, read_only, true);
                 break;
 
         case IMAGE_RAW:
-                new_path = strappenda("/var/lib/container/", new_name, ".raw");
+                new_path = strappenda("/var/lib/machines/", new_name, ".raw");
 
                 r = copy_file_atomic(i->path, new_path, read_only ? 0444 : 0644, false, FS_NOCOW_FL);
                 break;
diff --git a/tmpfiles.d/var.conf b/tmpfiles.d/var.conf
index d0c759e0fc..9b7644476b 100644
--- a/tmpfiles.d/var.conf
+++ b/tmpfiles.d/var.conf
@@ -18,6 +18,6 @@ f /var/log/btmp 0600 root utmp -
 d /var/cache 0755 - - -
 
 d /var/lib 0755 - - -
-v /var/lib/container 0700 - - -
+v /var/lib/machines 0700 - - -
 
 d /var/spool 0755 - - -