Beit Guvrin
Israel · Southern District · 275 m
Description
Beit Guvrin (בית גוברין) is a landscape beneath the landscape. For two thousand years, people quarried the soft chalk beneath these fields from above, breaking through the crust with a small opening and enlarging the space below until it became a world of bell-shaped chambers up to forty meters across. Daylight filters in through a hole in the roof. Some chambers served as dovecotes with thousands of nesting niches, others as olive presses or cisterns. The Sidonian tombs of the nearby Hellenistic city were painted with hunting scenes. On one day during the excavation season, visitors can take part themselves, digging, sifting the soil, and holding the finds in their hands.
Length of stay
Recommended length of stay: 1 day
Travel season
Best time to visit: February – April or November
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Highlights
- Bell caves of Beit Guvrin (UNESCO World Heritage)
- Sidonian burial caves and their painted walls
- Columbarium caves and their nesting niches
- Roman amphitheatre and the Crusader fortress
- Tel Maresha and the Hellenistic town
- Dig for a Day in the excavation season
- Olive press caves and the underground workshops
- Wildflower carpets of the Judean lowlands (February - March)
- Tel Lachish and its Assyrian siege ramp(Day trip)
- Forest trails around the national park