We included the National Park of Bet Guvrin-Maresha in our tour of Israel, just a few weeks after the site has been included in the Unesco family.There was no commemorative plate yet.I would say its a great advantage of travelling with a car as the different sites within the park are far from each other.They give you a handy leaflet at the entrance with detailled informations.Bet Guvrin was for me quite special for the variety of beautiful caves dug by its former inhabitants.There you find the Columbarium Cave where doves were raised in over 2000 niches-for their eggs, meat and also the fertilizer was used.Doves were also sacrified in religious rituals.Just in Maresha (which was abandoned during the Roman period) some 85 combarium caves have been found, with tens of thousand of niches.

Other hightlights are the socalled Sidonian caves which were used during the Hellenistic period as burial grounds.

They contain rich frescoes and inscriptions.

The Bell Caves date from the Byzantine period and are a great sight, not to be missed at the end of the circuit.

They come in all shades of greytones, and are really huge.