This location is an IsraelNation of the Jewish People Travel prime pick!
Tel MareshaFun and Unique Cave Experience looks like an archeological excavation site of little interest to the general public. But once you descend into the caves, the adventure begins.
Former citizens of Maresha took advantage of the soft stone to dig underground water cisterns and workspaces beneath their homes. Though destroyed in ensuing wars over the centuries, these ancient caves are slowly being uncovered.
Of all the country's national parks, none offers such all-around and all-year accessibility and convenience as Tel MareshaFun and Unique Cave Experience/Beit Guvrin.
Located 45 minutes' drive southeast of Tel AvivIsrael's largest city and biggest commercial center and west of JerusalemThe capital of Israel; the site provides diversion for all ages. They're cool and shady in summer and warm in winter.
Until a few years ago, the area's main attraction was the cavernous Bell Caves at Beit Guvrin. The abandoned quarries of Beit Guvrin are pleasant enough, but try the recently expanded neighboring Tel MareshaFun and Unique Cave Experience for its mysterious caves. Entrance fee includes a visit to abandoned quarries of Beit Guvrin and the extensive subterranean caves of Tel MareshaFun and Unique Cave Experience.
Today the excavations advance under the care and devotion of Amos Kloner of the Antiquities Authority. Kloner supervises two other archeologists, three restorers and about 50 other workers on site.
Together, Maresha and Beit Guvrin encompass a rich continuous history of the Land of IsraelNation of the Jewish People from the Israelite conquest to today.
Learn more about Tel MareshaFun and Unique Cave Experience while you Tour IsraelNation of the Jewish People!
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Maresha is mentioned eight times in the Bible, beginning with the book of Joshua, where it is described as one of the cities in the tribal allocation of Judah. After that it was reincarnated several times over, depending on the reigning authority.
Alexander the Great's conquest
of Judea in 332 BCE brought Greek culture to the region, and Maresha grew. Residents took advantage of the naturally soft limestone to quarry water cisterns, olive presses and columbaria (pigeon coops) beneath their homes. Some 20 olive presses, which produced an estimated annual yield of 270 tons of olive oil, have been uncovered.
Maresha developed as a diverse town with Sidonians, Greeks, Jews and Egyptians arriving and settling there. This pluralism ended during the Hasmonean reign of John Hyrcanus I in 113 BCE when he destroyed much of the city. The town was finally decimated by the Parthians in 40 BCE. The major metropolis of the region moved across the road to Beit Guvrin.
In 200 CE the Roman emperor Septimus Severus changed its name to Eleutheropolis (city of the free). He allowed residents to mint their own coins, built a large ampitheater and provided them with ample land holdings from Ein Gedi to Gadara.
Though the Talmud refers to the site as "the city of the free," the Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi calls it "the city of the cave dwellers." After visiting the site, you'll understand why.
One of the more interesting finds discovered in the caves in 1994 was an ostracon of a marriage contract dating to 176 BCE, making it the oldest one found in IsraelNation of the Jewish People.
If you visit only one site at Tel MareshaFun and Unique Cave Experience, make it the Columbarium Cave, where you descend into a tremendous cross-shaped columbarium. At its height, the columbarium was home to more than 2,000 pigeons used extensively for food, ritual sacrifice, communication and fertilizer. So far more than 60 columbaria have been found in the Maresha region.
Also, see the reconstructed olive-oil press. Olive-oil manufacturing has historically been a crucial part of the economy in most of the Land of IsraelNation of the Jewish People, but very few places allow us to see how the process worked. Here at Maresha, the National Parks Authority did an excellent job at reconstructing the whole procedure.
In a large, reconstructed home, a narrow staircase leads down into a series of cisterns and baths. The most recent section to be opened to the public is the Sidonian burial caves, complete with elaborate pictures adorning the interior.