Maresha


Useful Information

Location: Bet Guvrin National Park.
(31.592123, 34.899973)
Open: OCT to MAR daily 8-16.
APR to SEP daily 8-17.
[2023]
Fee: Adults NIS 28, Children NIS 14, Student NIS 24, Israeli Senior NIS 14.
Groups: Adults NIS 24, Children NIS 12.
[2023]
Classification: SubterraneaCave House
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:  
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:  
Address: Bet Guvrin National Park, Tel: +972-8-6811020. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

9th century BC city inhabited.
40 BC city abandoned.
2014 inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Description

Mareshah was one of the cities which belonged to the tribe of Judah. It is mentioned in Joshua 15:44. It is also mentioned in II Chronicles 11:8 as it was one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam. Mareshah was inhabited from the 9th century BC until 40 BC by Jews, Edomites, Sidonians, Greeks, and even a few Egyptians. Later it was replaced by Bet Guvrin.

Today there are only the remains of the city, showing how it was built and rebuilt over the centuries. The best preserved part of the city are the caves below. The main reason to go underground was to avoid the extreme temperatures outside.

The caves were used for daily live, so they contained all sorts of rooms with different purposes. There have been found 20 rooms which originally contained oil presses. 60 rooms were columbariums, which are used for raising pigeons. 20 of the caves could be identified to be baths, with bath tubes hewn from the rock, many cisterns were found too. And most of the rooms were just cave houses, cave dwellings used to live in.