Lost in Hazan

The Hazan caves are a network of rooms and caves, built underground by the Jews, as a hiding place from the Romans, during the time of the Bar-Kochba rebellion, in the 2^nd century A.D. The Hazan caves are located near Lachish, about 10 miles southeast of Kiryat Gat, in an area of the country which has its unique beauty: the last green area before you reach the Beer Sheva and  Negev area. The scenery on the way to the caves is very pretty, hilly with natural plant growth as opposed to Jewish National Fund forests. When traveling to the site by car, you will certainly agree that it is off the beaten track.

The caves are tall enough so that in most places you can walk through them, while crouching as opposed to crawling. The Jews who hid there, evidently sustained themselves by the production of olive oil. As a matter of fact the most interesting rooms are those with rows of notches carved in the floors, in which clay jugs of olive oil were placed for storage. In between each row of notches were additional narrow rows in which oil from any broken jugs would seep and flow into a central location so that no oil would be wasted.

Posted by: Robert Woolwine at 01:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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