Tucked away in the Judean plain at 400 meters above sea level lies one of Israel’s gems – the Beit Guvrin National Park.

The 1250 acre area is home to approximately 800 caves of which many are connected through an underground tunnel system. They are estimated to be around 2000 years old and archaeological remains from several different periods have been found, i.e. Persian, Hellenic, Crusader and Arabic. Some caves even show original crosses or Arabic inscriptions on the walls.

The ground at Beit Guvrin is mostly chalky and hence was perfectly suitable for digging storerooms, quarries, workshops and hiding places into it. The site and city flourished in the Hellenistic as well as in the Crusader period, but for centuries it was destroyed, rebuilt and destroyed again, before falling into oblivion.

In 1980 the site was rediscovered and turned into a National Park; visitors can today enjoy the sites of the bell caves, Sedonian burial caves, and an old crusader church. Film crews can capture magnificent footage in caves not accessible for the public and crawl in tunnels and underground passageways to give their audience an insight into secret worlds of the past.