Emily and David in Israel: Visiting the Past at Kibbutz Gal On

Yesterday, we rented a car and drove to Kibbutz Gal On, where David was a member for about 3 years before he left Israel for good in 1989. It's very close to where Hanan and Adi's wedding was held two weeks ago today, but we didn't have time then to make a stop.

We are staying in the guest accommodations, which didn't exist when David lived here and aren't actually run by the kibbutz. But they are right on the kibbutz, so they make an easy jumping off platform to visit old friends. Shlomo, who runs the accommodations, gave us the page from the telephone book that has this kibbutz's members, and David made his way through the Hebrew and found a number of friends. Unfortunately, one man whom he had really looked forward to seeing again died a couple of months and his wife just a couple of weeks ago.

But we did find a number of people, including Mark Freidman, who offered to take us to the caves at Bet Guvrin today. After a wonderful night's sleep (so much quieter than Kfar Saba!) and a proper kibbutz breakfast (mostly salad), we set off.

Bet Guvrin-Maresha National Park is located on the sites of Maresha, settled several centuries BCE near an important crossroads. The composition of the population varied over the centuries as Persians, Sidonians, and even Greeks joined Egyptians and Jews already living here. In 40 BCE it was demolished by the Parthians.

By 68 CE, Bet Guvrin had sprung up nearby and was captured by the Romans. It was quite a large city in the Byzantine era. Most of the caves for which it is famous were dug during the early Muslim period, and there was even a small Crusader city here in the 12th century CE.

The so-called bell caves, after their shape, were dug by creating a small hole in the harder overlying rock called nari. Beneath that, the softer rock called kirton could be quarried out and removed through the hole. The quarried rock was used as building material for the above-ground city. As the workers quarried deeper, they could widen out the caves into the characteristic bell shapes. These bells often intersected to form much larger caverns, many of which were used as cisterns. These often had stairs spiraling down to the bottom to access the water as it was drawn down during the dry season.

Here you can see a channel for water collection alongside the steps.

This one had grooves worn into the lip of the cistern where ropes were lowered to the water.

Yet another use for the caves, after quarrying, was as pigeon coops, or columbariums. Some were just repurposed quarries with niches carved into the sides for the pigeons, while others were quite elaborate, often cross-shaped structures with hundreds, if not thousands, of niches.

Many of the caves were used as factories. This one was used for making olive oil and still contains the olive crushing device. Here you can see the crude axle around which the lens-shaped stone revolved, propelled by animals.

The crushed olives were collected in flat baskets, which were stacked in these niches, and the extra-virgin olive oil allowed to drain off first. Then the log shown here was placed on top and weighted down with the stones below. Pressured was increased by cranking the shorter pieces of wood around to lift the stones, and the oil was collected. We saw several of these caves, each with several niches. Mark pointed out that this method required either a tremendously strong building or a building built into the bedrock (i.e., a cave), lest the downward pressure on the olives lift the building off its foundations.

We also visited the Sidonian burial caves. Built between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, these caves were elaborately decorated. The decorations were carefully sketched by their discoverers in the early 20th century, but then destroyed by the Muslims after the archaeologists were done and left the area. Seen here are restorations done following the sketches. This wall, by the way, is not curved; it is an artifact of the app I use to stitch the photos together.

There were two long walls of burial niches surrounding this more elaborately decorated central room, probably also a tomb.

This is the second long wall. You can see that this population already has an extensive knowledge of African animals, as well as mythological beasts.

Cerberus guards the door.

All of the above was in the Biblical and Hellenistic city of Marresha. From there we walked to the Roman-Byzantine city of Bet Guvrin by way of the ruins of the church of Sandahanna. This was built during the Byzantine period, renovated by the Crusaders, and largely demolished by the Ottomans. Sandahanna in thought to be an Arabic mispronunciation of Santa Anna, Latin for St. Anne, the mother of Mary. Obviously there are two conflicting traditions about where St Anne was from, if you remember the church in Jerusalem where Mary was supposed to have been born,

The caves in Bet Guvrin are considerably more complex, with multiple rooms made from intersecting bells. Not surprisingly, these hugely undermined areas often collapse despite efforts to add modern supports.

In a nearby collapsed cave that had later been an Arab farm complete with fig and olive trees and lots of much-appreciated shade, we took a break and had watermelon, thoughtfully supplied by Mark.

Then we visited a number of interconnecting caves, including this partially collapsed one, which we entered by ignoring the sign telling us it was too dangerous.

Most fascinating about this cave were a couple of Arabic inscriptions:

And a couple of crosses carved nearby.

Then it was on to the Roman city, which Mark thinks was mostly for R&R for Roman soldiers. Certainly, it contained entertainment centers, such as this remarkably well-preserved amphitheater, baths, and a cauldron or "hot room."