Bet Guvrin- world heritage site

In one of the bell caves

We had a very interesting and fun weekend.

We went south to visit the families from Kibbutz Zikim that stayed last summer with us during the war. But before we went to there we stopped in an UNESCO world heritage site called "Bet Guvrin".

It is an amazing place- very interesting even for the kids. They still talk enthusiastically about it.

We visited caves that were over 2000 years old. In the whole area are thousands of caves. Some were used as Colobiariums (for raising doves) some were cisterns, storage rooms or used for oil presses and were situated under houses of the ancient city of Maresha. We especially liked the "Maze cave"- an underground labyrinth of caves that were originally not connected to each other, but in later periods pass ways were added.

In one of the Columbariums- you can see the niches for the doves.

 

A part of an ancient oilpress

There's also a large old church (St. Anne's Church) built during the byzantine period- but we skipped this one because the kids needed a break from walking.

We visited the "Bell Caves" that were used as quarries. They are huge and impressive.

I would love to go back and also visit the remains of the roman amphitheater, the crusaders fortress and others.

in the bell caves