Bell Caves (Beit Guvrin Park)

Entrance to one of the caves

The 800+ bell caves were originally created starting ~1,500 years ago by removing the soft limestone chalk for building materials.

Notice the quarry lines?

More quarry lines

Many are connected by underground tunnels (5,000+ tunnels and underground caves have been found).

Near the cave entrance

The stone was removed from small holes at the top of the caves, and they carved the rock outward as they went down.

Top of cave showing small holes

Most are only accessible from the top.

Notice how far they cut

You can clearly see the lines where they chipped away and removed the rock, as well as some ancient inscriptions in the walls (some very high up).

Prayer inscribed in Arabic

More ancient inscriptions

When we were in the caves they were empty, so we had fun singing and listening to the amazing echoes.

Empty cave and tunnel

We also heard some birds (or bats, not sure).

Sometimes they have concerts in the caves because the sound is so good.

The southern cave

Check out some of our favorite photos from the day.