Beit Guvrin – the underground city

This amazing underground city has been declared a UNESCO heritage site. It is well worth a visit when you are in Israel and I have taken many groups through this unique National Park.

Beit Guvrin is an important archaeological site in southern Israel around 60km south of Jerusalem and contains an ancient architectural marvel - countless caves intended for a wide range of uses. Whereas it has a tumultuous history from the 1st Temple period till modern times, it is the amazing caves which are the main attraction for many of those visiting the Park. There is evidence that it was inhabited as far back as 3,000 years ago.

This unique underground city started off as a quarry. The geological strata in this location enabled the creation of this unique city. The top layer, which is called Nari, is very strong and the layer below it is a very soft limestone, like a chalk, very easy to dig. This combination of hard and soft strata triggered a unique way of digging these caves. Initially, a cone shape was quarried in the Nari stratum until reaching the limestone stratum. Then big blocks of limestone were cut out and brought up, leaving them to dry outside to be later used as building blocks. This method of starting with a cone that opens up as the caves were dug deeper resulted in bell shape caves. The reason for this cone shape method of digging was to preserve the limestone (below the Nari stratum) soft and wet and exposing only as little of it as possible to the outside.

These bell shape caves were used for a number of functions: as an oil press, as a Columbarium (grow pigeons) which was very important during that period. It was good kosher meat to eat, the manure was a good fertilizer for the crops and on pilgrims to the Holy Temple a minimum of two doves per person was required as sacrifice. These caves were also used as burial caves, water cisterns and as living quarters.

Also to see at Beit Guvrin is St Anne’s Church dates back to the Byzantine era but was renovated by the Crusaders in the 1100s. Today you can see an impressive high semi-circular domed stone structure.

In the Beth Guvrin National Park there are approximately 500 bell shape caves and there are approximately 300 more such caves in the area, some of them 60 meters deep.

Click here for this very informative movie to get a better and more detailed view of some of the caves.