This park is a most fascinating place. It is a park with many caves of several different types, all quite amazing.
Maresha is an ancient city, mentioned in the Book of Joshua. It was populated from at least the 9th century BCE
until 40 BCE by Jews, Edomites, Sidonians, Greeks, and even a few Egyptians. Bet Guvrin replaced Maresha,
and was conquered by Romans, then served as a Byzantine center of Christianity. It underwent a Muslim period,
Crusader period, and was occupied by an Arab village until Israel's War of Independence.
We began our exploration by entering a 2400 year old water cistern dug by the Edomites. It was later converted into a Columbarium for raising doves. This is known as the Polish Cave, because of some graffiti left behind by the Polish Army in 1943. You can see the roosts carved into the rock behind Steffi in the picture.
In addition to raising doves, both for food and cultic purposes, the residents grew olives and produced olive oil.
Olives and olive oil were economically important crops. Here is Steve pretending to operate an ancient olive press.
Despite having been in so many caves, we were not finished yet. There is a third section to the park where
The Bell Caves are later, dating from the Byzantine and Early Muslim periods. Originally there were many pits
dug for quarrying. These grew to become bell-shaped caves, and later joined together underground to form a vast
subterranean network. All are lit by natural light coming through the holes at the top that were originally
used to remove the quarried rock.
We visited Yad Vashem, the memorial for those who lost their lives in the Holocaust.
The place is largely under construction, because they are building a new Visitor Center.
We went through the displays, a very emotional experience, and also spent some time in the
research library. The only photograph we took is of the powerful bronze relief "The Last March",
located outside on the Plaza of the Warsaw Ghetto.
While on the West side of West Jerusalem, we also visited Ein Kerem and the Hadassah Hospital
campus nearby, and took a guided tour of the magnificent Marc Chagall Windows in the synagogue.
There was still unfinished sightseeing on the old city. We arranged to take the tour of the
Western Wall Tunnels. What a surprise to find out that our friend Nancy from Texas was also taking this tour
with us! This tour started with a walk up the rooftops to get the lay of the land.
We got a good view of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre's domes and scaffolding.
We went to the Wailing Wall and spent some time there while our guide arranged the tickets for the
tunnel tour. Nancy took our camera into the women's section this time and took a picture of Steffi at the wall.
Steve then went into the (men only) covered portion of the wall, to the left of the exposed portion and
took pictures. Like the outside portion of the wall. this area also functions as a synagogue,
and many can be found praying here at any time. There is a separate gated section containing
Torah Scrolls and other holy items.
These tunnels were very controversial when they were excavated. They start at the
Wailing Wall in the Jewish Quarter, and follow the wall to the North. This route takes one under
a portion of the Muslim Quarter. Initially the tunnels are many meters above bedrock, as is the
Wailing Wall. Much of the Wailing Wall is in fact underground. We only see the upper portion of it.
Our tour was almost over now. It returned through the Muslim Quarter but
just before it ended, we said goodbye to Nancy again when we left it
to go back to the Jewish Quarter section of the Cardo to do some shopping
We made more good use of our car, by driving up to Mt. Scopus for an even higher
(if farther away) view of the old city from Hebrew University. The best view of the old city we found was right
outside the synagogue. It shows the old city from the Northeast.
Later, after dinner, just before sunset, we drove South on Hebron Road to the Haas Promenade.
This vantage point gives an interesting view of the old city from the South. The three valleys
that form the Hebrew letter shin can each be made out if you know where to look. The Hinnom valley
comes in from the left about halfway up and crosses to the right in front of the city. The Tyropeon Valley
emerges from the city in the center, and the Kidron Valley is on the Right.
Having gone this far South, there was one other place we could visit without
getting into any danger, and that is the kibbutz of Ramat Rahel, located on a plateau
that was directly adjacent to the Green Line. This was a dangerous place before 1967.
Now there is an upscale hotel there. We went to the South side of the plateau
and took a picture looking South towards Bethlehem. We had decided not to visit Bethlehem,
nor Rachel's Tomb, because of the political situation, so this was as close as we were
going to get. Hopefully, we will be able to return at a more peaceful time and
see these things that we missed.
Here at the eastern margin of the Judean Hills, we decided to go on a really "off the beaten path" excursion.
In Rabin Park, near Latrun, there is a bit of history from the War of Independence that has been restored by the JNF.
This is the "Burma Road" which was named in reference to a World War II effort by the Allies in Asia.
this "Burma Road" was carved from a hillside in 1948 by the Jewish forces i
One reason for the large number of man-made caves here is that the bedrock is very soft limestone, covered
by a cap of hard limestone. The softness of the rock below permits the digging out of a great many caves.
The quarried rock was used for building material. The caves were used as cisterns, storerooms, or for the
keeping of animals.
The next cave we explored is called the Columbarium. It was two stories high underground, with a main hall and two
transverse crossing halls. There were roosts for doves cut into every available wall, more than 2000 of them.
We explored other caves there. Many of them interconnect now, although they were not necessarily
connected when they were built. It was fascinating to explore all these connections. Although
quite ancient, the caves are all man made, so steps are generally available to go up or down.
When we had exhausted our supply of caves to explore, we went to a separate area nearby, where the
Sidonian Burial caves had been discovered. These were used in the 3rd to 2nd centuries B. C. E.
Only one has had the original paintings restored, and it is far more interesting, so that is the one
we took pictures of, although we explored both of them.
the famous Bell Caves can be found. To get there we walked back to our car across the top of Tel Maresha,
past the ruins of the Byzantine church of Santa Anna to our car so we could drive to the parking lot
for the Bell Caves.
Jerusalem Again
Now we had run out of time for the day, and needed to find a hotel. Eschewing the main highway,
we drove up through the Judean Hills to Jerusalem. This was a trip filled with beautiful views,
although probably not the fastest way to get there. We treated ourselves to a splurge, and stayed
this time at the beautiful and fascinating American Colony Hotel. It is famous as being the most
popular hotel for the foreign media, and we did see several reporters and video crews there,
though no personalities that we recognized.
We had a car in Jerusalem now, and used it to visit some of the attractions we had missed before,
when we were only walking. Steve learned how to (mostly) hold his own in Jerusalem traffic, but
Steffi occasionally had to clench her teeth or close her eyes.
This relief is a 1975 copy of Nathan Rapoport's 1948 monument to the Warsaw Ghetto, and it depicts
the mass deportation of the Jews to the extermination camps.
Pictures were not allowed, so you have to
look at Hadassah's web site in order to see what these windows look like and to hear their story.
Now we were ready to begin the tour of the tunnels. The first thing they do is show you a
model of the temple and the temple mount, in order to better understand where the tunnel is going.
We could see the arches above us holding up the "Street of Chains" (Hashelshelet) which goes through the Muslim Quarter
and enters the Temple Mount through the Chain Gate at the level of the Temple Mount, well above us.
Within the tunnels there are some places where excavations were made downward along the face of the wall
to reach bedrock.
As the tunnel proceeds North at a level, it eventually reaches bedrock and the base of the wall,
because the bedrock slopes upward to the North. From this point on the tunnel rises on bedrock until it
reaches the Northwest corner of Herod's great wall. The tunnel then exits onto the Via Dolorosa,
in the heart of the Muslim Quarter.
Judean Hills
On our last day here, we returned to our exploring of the Judean Hills. We did not realize quite how steep
and beautiful they are. We took a short hike, and photographed the hills. Then we proceeded down to the East
to reach the Soreq Caves. This was a change of pace for our cave adventures. The Soreq caves are not excavated,
but rather they are natural stalactite caves. They did a beautiful job of presenting the natural features there, but
alas they did not permit photographs.
