Caves in Israel
Israel is not large but certainly has one of the most diverse landscapes. From deserts to ski resorts to the two lowest lakes in world, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Israel truly has it all.
One thing that many don’t think of but often holds some of the most treasured finds in Biblical history are the caves of Israel. These natural places of refuge are spoken of many times in the Bible and have been givers of countless historical finds.
So what caves should you take a look at on your Christian Israel Tour to Israel with Immanuel Tours?
Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park
Beit Guvrin- Maresha National Park is also known as “land of a thousand caves”. above ground, you see the ruins of First Temple period city that was known as Maresha. Below and in the earth, you instead find such an impressive system of caves, that UNESCO designated it as a World Heritage Site.
Some caves were used as mines, making them bigger and bigger over extended years of time. Other caves were used as buried spots. Still some were used as dwellings. They are truly beautiful and seem as they could go on forever.
Qumran
No list about caves in Israel would be complete without a discussion about the most famous caves since a few shepherd boys threw a stone inside a cave and heard pottery crack… Qumran.
Qumran is where a sect of very strict Jews lived and studied. When they disappeared, they hid scrolls in pottery in the caves up above their compound, likely to protect them from the Romans. Due to the unique air and climate of the area thanks to the desert and the Dead Sea, combined with the material of the scrolls and the pottery it was in, these scrolls miraculously survived about 2,000 years. They proved that the Old Testament that we read today was the same they read then. To say this is important is unbelievably understated.
You can’t go into these caves, as they are all on cliffs, but you can view them from below.
Zedekiah’s Cave
You will almost certainly spend a considerable amount of time in the Old City of Jerusalem, and take in many sights of awe and wonder, but one you may not realize is below the streets.
Just below the Muslim Quarter you will fine a naturally occurring entrance and then find a massive cave that was dug out over thousands of years. This is wear massive amounts of rock was quarried, including for the 1st Temple and by Herod the Great for what is now known as the Western Wall.
The Freemasons believe that this cave is where the Freemason’s originally formed during the building of the First Temple, and hold a meeting in the cave ever year.
