Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park

Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park is a national park in central Israel, containing a large network of caves recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.^[1] The national park includes the remains of the historical towns of Maresha, one of the important towns of Judah during the First Temple Period,^[2] and Bayt Jibrin, a depopulated Palestinian town known as Eleutheropolis in the Roman era.^[3] However, Maresha and Bayt Jibrin are not part of the UNESCO site, which covers only the cave network.^[4]

Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park
Bell cave at Beit Guvrin National Park
Location	Southern District, Israel
Nearest city	Kiryat Gat
Coordinates	31°35′49.06″N 34°54′2.33″E / 31.5969611°N 34.9006472°E / 31.5969611; 34.9006472
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands as a Microcosm of the Land of the Caves
Type	Cultural
Criteria	v
Designated	2014 (38th session)
Reference no.	1370
Region	Middle East

Archaeological artifacts unearthed at the site include a large Jewish cemetery, a Roman-Byzantine amphitheater, a Byzantine church, public baths, mosaics and burial caves.^[5]

It is located 13 kilometers from Kiryat Gat.

History

 

Map of Kibbutz Beit Guvrin, historical Bayt Jibrin-Eleutheropolis, the national park with ancient caves World Heritage Site, and Tel Maresha (1940s Survey of Palestine map with modern overlay)

 

Maresha dwellings

The earliest written record of Maresha was as a city in ancient Judah (Joshua 15:44^[6]). The Hebrew Bible mentions among other episodes that Rehoboam fortified it against Egyptian attack. After the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah the city of Maresha became part of the Edomite kingdom. In the late Persian period a Sidonian community settled in Maresha, and the city is mentioned in the Zenon Papyri (259 BC). During the Maccabean Revolt, Maresha was a base for attacks against Judea and suffered retaliation from the Maccabees. After Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus I captured and destroyed Maresha in 112 BCE, the region of Idumea^[7] remained under Hasmonean control. In 40 BC the Parthians devastated completely the "strong cite", after which it was never rebuilt.

Beth Gabra or Beit Guvrin succeeded Maresha as the main town of the area. Conquered by the Roman general Vespasian during the Jewish War (68 CE) and completely destroyed during the Bar Kochba revolt (132–135 CE), it was re-established as a Roman colony and in the year 200 it received the title of a city and the ius italicum, under the new name of "Eleutheropolis", 'city of freemen'. Sources from the Byzantine period mention both Christian and Jewish personalities living in the city. A large Jewish community existed during the Roman and Byzantine Periods and famous Tannaim and Amoraim resided here.^[8]

Archaeological excavations

Maresha was first excavated in 1898–1900 by Bliss and Macalister, who uncovered a planned and fortified Hellenistic city encircled by a town wall with towers. Two Hellenistic and one Israelite stratum were identified by them on the mound. Many of the ancient city's olive presses, columbaria and water cisterns can still be seen.

Both Maresha and Beit Guvrin/Eleutheropolis were excavated after 1989 and 1992 respectively by the Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner. Important finds at the latter site were the amphitheater built by the Roman army units stationed there, a large Roman bath house, and from the Crusader period a fortress integrating the walls of the Roman amphitheater and bath house, as well as an attached church.

Burial caves

 

Sidonian burial caves

The Sidonian burial caves were the family tomb of Apollophanes, the leader of the Sidonian community in Beit Guvrin. The Sidonian caves are the only ones that are painted inside. The caves were burial caves for the Greek, Sidonian and Edumite inhabitants of Beit Guvrin. The first and largest cave has paintings of animals, real and mythic, above the niches where the corpses were laid. A cock crows to scare away demons; the three-headed dog Cerberus guards the entrance to the underworld; a bright red phoenix symbolizes the life after death.^[9] The Tomb of the Musicians is decorated with a painting showing a man playing the flute and a woman playing the harp.

Bell caves

 

"The Polish Cave" with columbarium (dovecote)

There are about 800 bell-shaped caves located in the area. Many of the caves are linked via an underground network of passageways that connect groups of 40–50 caves.

 

Bell Caves at the Beit Govrin National Park

The largest bell caves are in the east part of the park. They have been dug since prehistoric times, the excavations reaching their zenith in the Hellenistic period and during the Byzantine and Early Arab Period, when blocks of chalkstone extracted from the caves were used for construction work (buildings, etc.).^[10] The bell caves consist of limestone in their upper-layer (to a depth of about one to two meters), beneath which is rock consisting solely of a beige-colored, soft chalkstone,^[11] utilized by its early inhabits for carving caverns and dwellings. There are numerous bell caves within the park grounds and events are held in one of them. They are large (over 60 feet (18 m) high), airy and easily accessible.

Columbaria

The National Park is known for some of the best preserved columbaria from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. One of the largest is located on the west side of Tell Maresha (Khurbet es Sandahannah), described by Conder and Kitchener in their Survey of Western Palestine, and formerly known by its local inhabitants as Es Sûk.^[12] It has been carved underground from the soft chalkstone endemic to the area, and built with tiers of niches capable of housing hundreds of brooding pigeons.

Cave dwellings

There are a number of cave-like dwellings carved from the chalkstone bedrock, some of which display a vast extension of networks and passageways, with staircases descending down into the depth, made with step-like balustrades, and replete with cisterns for storing water and millstones for grinding olives. These caverns and dwellings, though not situated on the eminence of the Tell itself, were considered part and parcel with the city of Maresha itself, as they were later enclosed by a wall that encompassed both the city and its expanded suburbs.^[13] The largest and most impressive of these caverns and dwelling places is that built near the Tell on its southeast side, and which the locals knew by the name Mŭghâret Sandahannah (The Cave of Saint Anne).^[14] Today, in Modern Hebrew, the same cave dwelling is called Mavokh (Maze).

Church of Saint Anne

 

The ruins of the Church of St Anne,^[15] called Sandahanna in Arabic.

Saint Anne's church was first built in the Byzantine period and then rebuilt by the Crusaders in the 12th century. The ruin is known in Arabic as Khirbet (lit. "ruin") Sandahanna, the nearby tell (mound) of Maresha being called Tell Sandahanna.^[16] The freestanding remains of the apse are well preserved (see photo).

Amphitheater

The remains of a Roman amphitheater were uncovered in the mid-1990s. The amphitheater was built in the 2nd century, on the northwestern outskirts of Beit Guvrin. This amphitheater, in which gladiatorial contests took place, could seat about 3,500 spectators. It had a walled arena of packed earth, with subterranean galleries. The arena was surrounded by a series of connected barrel vaults, which formed a long, circular corridor and supported the stone seats above it; staircases led from the outside and from the circular corridor to the tribunes. It was built for the Roman troops stationed in the region after the suppression of the Bar Kochba rebellion. The amphitheater is an elliptical structure built of large rectangular limestone ashlars. It was in use until destroyed in the Galilee earthquake of 363.^{[dubious ][citation needed]}

Other finds

Byzantine mosaics depicting birds and animals were discovered on the hilltop in 1924.^[17]

Several hundred astragali – animal knucklebone dice – used 2,300 years ago during the Hellenistic period for divination and gaming have been found at the site since 2000.^[18]

Among other major archaeological finds at this site is the Heliodorus Stele. This stele recounts events in Judaea prior to the Maccabean revolt and offers important historical evidence for events which modern day Jews commemorate during the holiday of Hanukkah.^[19]

See also

• Kibbutz Beit Guvrin
• National Parks of Israel
• Archaeology of Israel
• List of Caves

References

1. "Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands as a Microcosm of the Land of the Caves".
2. The Guide to Israel, Zev Vilnay, Tel Aviv, 1972, p.281
3. The Guide to Israel, Zev Vilnay, Tel Aviv, 1972, p.275
4. The Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin, In the Judean Lowlands, As a Microcosm of the Land of the Caves, Submitted to the World Heritage Center - UNESCO By the State of Israel - January 2013, p.14: "Note: The relationship between the caves and the settlement network above them – wherever it is referred to all through this dossier – is given in order to let the reader understand the context of these caves; however, the mentioned archaeological surface remains are not a part of the proposed nomination!"
5. Bell Cave at Beit Guvrin January 29, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
6. "Joshua 15:44 - Bible Gateway". www.biblegateway.com. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
7. "Idumea". Catholic Answers. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
8. "Bet Guvrin (Beit Jibrin, Betogabris, Beth Gabra)". Carta Jerusalem. 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
9. For a description of the paintings in the tomb of Apollophanes, see John P. Peeters and Herman Theirsch, Painted Tombs in the Necropolis of Marissa (London: Palestine Exploration Fund, 1905).
10. Professor Boaz Zissu of Bar-Ilan University, Tell Maresha: An underground city from the Hellenistic period in the Judean lowlands on YouTube, Lecture given at Bar-Ilan University. / March 2020, minutes 05:47–08:07 (in Hebrew).
11. Professor Boaz Zissu of Bar-Ilan University, Tell Maresha: An underground city from the Hellenistic period in the Judean lowlands on YouTube, Lecture given at Bar-Ilan University. / March 2020, minutes 07:11–07:33; (in Hebrew).
12. Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. pp. 289-290.
13. Professor Boaz Zissu of Bar-Ilan University, Tell Maresha: An underground city from the Hellenistic period in the Judean lowlands on YouTube, Lecture given at Bar-Ilan University. / March 2020, minutes 13:45–ff.; (in Hebrew).
14. Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund., pages 291-292 (s.v. Tell Sandahannah)
15. "Maresha - St. Anna | Huji". dig.corps-cmhl.huji.ac.il. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
16. The Holy Land: An Archeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, 1980, p.145
17. The Guide to Israel, Zev Vilnay, Tel Aviv, 1972, p.276
18. Perry-Gal, Lee; Stern, Ian; Erlich, Adi (2022-01-02). "Gaming and divination in the Hellenistic Levant: the case study of the astragalus assemblage from Maresha, Israel". Levant. Informa UK Limited. 54 (1): 65–79. doi:10.1080/00758914.2022.2048433. ISSN 0075-8914.
19. Heliodorus Stele

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beit Govrin National Park.

• Beit Guvrin
• UNESCO
• Archaeology of Beit Guvrin, Jewish Virtual Library 2016-11-16 at the Wayback Machine
• Unique sounds in the Bell Caves
• Shuli Levinboim, Re-reconstruction of the Bird Mosaic, –
• The Bell Cave in Maresha on YouTube
• The Polish Cave – Historical Sites in Israel on YouTube