Bet Guvrin and the Bell Caves

Next, we drove to Bet Guvrin, named on 1949 when Israel took it over.  Originally named Maresha, it was one of the cities of Judah during the time of the First Temple and is mentioned among the conquests of the ancient Israelites in the Book of Joshua and later in the Books of Chronicles as one of King Rehoboam's fortifications. According to the Madaba Map, Maresha was the place "whence came Micah the Prophet."^[4] In the 6th century BCE, as result of Zedekiah's rebellion  against the Babylonian kingdom and its king Nebuchadnezzar II, the latter occupied the Judean kingdom and sent many of its inhabitants into exile. This marked the end of Maresha as a Judahite city. (Wikipedia)

This is a National Park site,  and as we walked up the hill to see the caves, there were sheep being led by a modern shepherd.

The first thing we came to was a large area of "extra" antiquities--old olive presses and stands that were so numerous they were just laid out on the ground

We walked in the "dove cote" caves, where hundreds of niches had been hewn for the doves to lodge in, as keeping of doves was a lucrative business back in the day...

 Doves flew in while we were there, but given my dislike of birds (after having seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie at an impressionable age) I got out of there just as soon as I had the picture!

Other caves had basement cisterns that connected with the next-door neighbor's dwelling, and went on for more caves than we could go through (or that I wanted to go through--it was a bit claustrophobic)

Olive presses were also in the caves to keep the oil cool--another big business

 These were burial places within the caves

Sidonian burial sites underground--painted Fresco style-

The Greeks, Sidonians and Edumite people used them