Tel Maresha

Tel Maresha ajoins Beit Guvrin. In fact they are in a common national park. The boy and I set out early as usual and stopped on the way at a roadside cave to make our coffee. His Turkish coffee skills are improving.
Tel Maresha (and Beit Guvrin) are well known for their caves. Below the surface of 1.5-3M thick hard stone (called nari) lie huge deposits of pure soft limestone. For thousands of years (actually starting in the late Roman period through the 10th century), limestone was mined here. The stone was then burned to get lime for cement. This cement was used to construct the Roman and Byzantine developments in the area. The picture below shows the hard nari outer shell - the soft limestone has eroded away.
As soon as the park opened we stopped off at the "bell caves". These caves were once quarries where lime was mined. The brave miners would cut a small hole in the nari and then begin hollowing. The hole was kept small so the lime would not dry out and harden. These are some impressive caves, cathedralike in their grandeur. The Jesus Christ Superstar movie (1973) was filmed in these caves.
We started our visit at Tel Maresha by visiting the Sidonian burial caves. Maresha was originally built by Rehoboam of Judah (10th Century BCE) . In 701 BCE it was captured by the Assyrians (Sennacherib never made it to Jerusalem, he got the Kingdom of Judah to pay tribute instead). The Edomites took it over during the Babylonian conquest, and finally in 332 BCE the Greeks (and Alexander the Great) moved in. The town of Maresha became Hellenistic and most of the remains are from that period. Below are burial niches of a well-to-do family.
From the burial caves, we made our way across to the tel itself. There we found ourselves in a maze of about 30 interconnecting caves. These were the cisterns, tombs and olive and wine storage areas. The climate inside is completely different to the blazing heat above ground.
There are lots of "dovecots". Apparently young birds were thrown into the caves, the entrances were sealed until they were done mating and had young. They were then reopened and the males would fly out and bring back food to his family.
There were many underground olive presses. These were ingenious devices. The long pole rested on bags of olives behind the slots in the wall. The weights were then twisted onto the pole and the olives squeezed. Looks like these Greeks really must have liked pigeon, dipped in olive oil.
The boy is "happily" grinding some olives.
This is the remarkable columbarium (dove cote central). There are around 2000 niches for the doves to pair off in. Doves were valued in the ancient world as they were a good source of protein, and an excellent supplier of fertilizer.
There are around 50000 "niches" for doves in the whole site. That's a whole lot of birds and lots of dove poop.
Tel Marsha is big. We walked a lot and climbed up and down, in and out of caves and tunnels. By the time we walked the few kilometers back to the car, it was boiling hot and we were near death. The white chalk cliffs reflect the sun and you feel like you are being cooked. No wonder they built so much underground. We decided to leave the adjacent ruins of the Roman city of Beit Guvrin (or Eleutheropolis) for another day. We were both totally blown away by the expanse and the depths of Maresha.
We did stop off at the ruins of this Byzantine Church on the way out of the park. It's an imposing structure. This arch is all that remains. Its Latin name "Santa Anna", mispronounced "Sandahanna", became the Arabic name of Tel Maresha.

Go see it already!