Hazan caves

Underground oil press

Hazan Caves is a Bar Kokhba hiding complex located in the Shephelah, just west of Bnei Dekalim. The site's name derives from the Arabic word khazana (coffer, treasure). This is how the Arab villagers in the area called the site, which was looted by antiquities robbers many years ago.

The complex consists of karst caves, rock-cut cavities, underground rock-cut agricultural facilities and water cisterns connected to each other by underground tunnels and burrows. The site was discovered in 1979 by the eldest son of Moshav Amatzia - Ametzia Aboderam who was killed in duty as a team commander in the 35th Paratroopers Brigade (Israel).

In 2021, the site was declared as a national park and work began in order to make the site accessible to the public.

Archeology

Storage room with rock-cut sockets and channels

The site was excavated in 1983 by archaeologists Shlomo Godovich and Gideon Avni. They discovered that the underground complex includes 35 cavities, pits, tunnels, halls, agricultural facilities, storage rooms and hiding places, with a total length of about 220 meters, in an area that covers about 650 square meters.

The place was inhabited from the end of the Second Temple period until the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt, as well as during the Byzantine period until the early Arab period. During those time periods the settlement above the ground, made use of the underground cavities for various uses such as storage and hiding.

During the Bar-Kokhba revolt the underground cavities were expanded, connected and adapted for an extended stay. Gathering and guarding centers, hiding complexes, ventilation shafts and underground agricultural-industrial facilities such as an oil press were also installed, as well as niches for oil candles that were curved along the walls.

In the center of the complex are two bell shaped caves and a columbarium, which was integrated by the underground complex beneath the settlement. Four underground cavities were used as storage rooms. The floor of the storage rooms were carved with a pattern of round sockets (about 150 sockets on average per room) and in one of them an intact oil jugs were found. The ingenuity of the builders is expressed by the fact that they were built with a very gentle slope, with small channels connecting the sockets leading to a cistern, so that if a jug cracked, its liquid content would not be lost as it will flow and get collected in the cistern.