'Biggest yet' stalactite cave discovered in central Israel
SOURCE:Haaretz|BY:Ruth Schuster
One day, this geological wonder world in Israel could be part of a national park, unless it collapses as Route 60 is widened right over its ceiling
One day, this geological wonder world in Israel could be part of a national park, unless it collapses as Route 60 is widened right over its ceiling
A large cave featuring spectacular speleothem "rock growths" that formed over thousands –and possibly millions – of years has been discovered by the settlement of Ofra about 30 meters below the surface. This subterranean cavern features the full gamut of hanging stalactites, stalagmites piling up, encrusted pools of minerals, "elephant ear" layered formations and much more, when artificially lit. Otherwise it is pitch black.
It's a pity that nobody other than the intrepid cavers of the Hebrew University's Cave Research Center and caving club who discovered it can visit. This cave is extremely hard to reach. It is not accessible to the general public or even to most experts, affirms Omri Salner of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.
The Jubilee Cave. Credit: Boaz Langford/The Israel Cave Research Center at Hebrew University.
The Jubilee Cave. Credit: Boaz Langford/The Israel Cave Research Center at Hebrew University.
No human ever lived in it, nor did our predecessors or even animals, adds geologist Prof. Amos Frumkin, director of the Hebrew University Cave Research Center. The cave was discovered with efforts by cave researchers Vladimir Boslov, Raz Ben-Yair, Reuven Zakai, Yuri Lisovetz and Yoav Negev.
The team exploring the cave did find the skeleton of a snake. It had probably fallen in, not lived permanently in this pitch-black space, Frumkin says by telephone.
Ex-snake, who the researchers think fell in, as opposed to having lived in the cave. Credit: Boaz Langford / Hebrew University’s Cave Research Center
Ex-snake, who the researchers think fell in, as opposed to having lived in the cave. Credit: Boaz Langford / Hebrew University’s Cave Research Center
Minerals color the seepage in Jubilee Cave Credit: Yoav Negev
Minerals color the seepage in Jubilee Cave Credit: Yoav Negev
Dubbed "Jubilee Cave" to mark Ofra's 50th birthday, the newly revealed subterranean wonder world is about 88 meters in length, 75 meters wide and 40 meters in height – the highest underground chamber ever found in Israel, Frumkin says. The cave does not stand alone; it is part of a broader karst system around Ofra.
What is karst? That is the name for the pitted landscape that forms when rain over eons dissolves soluble bedrock, such as dolomite or limestone. The results are characteristic features from vast caves to sinkholes to underground rivers and streams.
Stalagmites and wonders in Jubilee Cave, in danger from highway expansion Credit: Yoav Negev
Stalagmites and wonders in Jubilee Cave, in danger from highway expansion Credit: Yoav Negev
Exploring the Jubilee Cave. Credit: Boaz Langford/The Israel Cave Research Center at Hebrew University.
Exploring the Jubilee Cave. Credit: Boaz Langford/The Israel Cave Research Center at Hebrew University.
Ofra sits in a karst system with at least 80 caves counted so far, descending through limestone or harder dolomite bedrock. Most are natural vertical shafts that channel rainwater from the surface to the underground aquifers, Frumkin says. The Jubilee Cave is one of few in the area with a broad chamber.
To be clear, there is a crack in the earth near Ofra that goes down like a shaft and suddenly widens into the richly decorated chamber, and that is the Jubilee Cave. It also explains why you can't go there. It is difficult and dangerous.
A member of the cave club climbing in the Jubilee Cave. Credit: Yoav Negev
A member of the cave club climbing in the Jubilee Cave. Credit: Yoav Negev
Death of a cave
But there is a problem. The Jubilee Cave is in danger of collapsing because Route 60 passes right over it, which is bad enough – and the worst part is that the highway is slated for expansion.
The expansion would pass right over the cavern. The Jubilee Cave is not part of a declared nature reserve, so there is no shortcut to protecting it.
Additionally, there is precedent of death from infrastructure works done in haste, the geological team adds. In Nesher Ramle – coincidentally a hotspot for human evolution – in 2014, a bulldozer fell into a cave whose roof collapsed, and the operator was killed.
Stalactite and stalagmite formations almost kissing in the Jubilee Cave. Credit: Yoav Negev
Stalactite and stalagmite formations almost kissing in the Jubilee Cave. Credit: Yoav Negev
![מערת היובל](https://img.haarets.co.il/bs/0000019b-65ac-d347-abbf-f5feb1c60000/f7/3c/51c5a24c448780975ac3797415f9/64269428.JPG?&width=420&height=280&cmsprod "מערת היובל
מערה עפרה עופרה
צילום : יואב נגב / יו"ר ארגון המערנות הישראלי. Credit: יואב נגב")
![מערת היובל](https://img.haarets.co.il/bs/0000019b-65ac-d347-abbf-f5feb1c60000/f7/3c/51c5a24c448780975ac3797415f9/64269428.JPG?&width=420&height=280&cmsprod "מערת היובל
מערה עפרה עופרה
צילום : יואב נגב / יו"ר ארגון המערנות הישראלי. Credit: יואב נגב")
מערת היובל מערה עפרה עופרה צילום : יואב נגב / יו"ר ארגון המערנות הישראלי Credit: יואב נגב
מערת היובל מערה עפרה עופרה צילום : יואב נגב / יו"ר ארגון המערנות הישראלי Credit: יואב נגב
In short, whether to protect human life or pretty mineral formations, the speleologists worry that a bulldozer or other heavy machinery will pass over the cave ceiling, which will implode. How can such things happen? The root of the problem is poor planning procedures in Judea and Samaria, says Matan Nahum, coordinator of the Nature Conservancy in Jerusalem and the West Bank at the Society for the Protection of Nature. Israeli law requires surveys before any infrastructure works but they're not being done in the West Bank, with the upshot that infrastructure works may have unexpected results such as endangering the Jubilee Cave. Which we can't see.
Why then should the layperson care if Highway 60 passes over the Jubilee Cave or not since the layperson can't go there anyway? One reason is to protect a remarkable creation of Nature, a capsule in time that may not have been sealed for millions of years, but was still relatively unbothered, except by that unhappy snake, it seems. No other animal remains have been found there so far. This renders it important for scientific reasons and if we must have our egos involved, the layman might appreciate the plan to encompass a number of the karst caves around Ofra in a sort of national park.
Flowstones and mineral pools in the Jubilee Cave. Credit: Yoav Negev
Flowstones and mineral pools in the Jubilee Cave. Credit: Yoav Negev
Herein lies another snag. A parcel of land in the middle of a putative park has been purchased by a private association called Nachala for the purpose of developing a neighborhood above the most famed of Ofra's karst caves, known as the "Chinese Hole," Frumkin explains. Unlike the newly revealed cave, the Chinese Hole is just a system of shafts, or vertical caves, with no glamorous, if pitch-black, chamber of "speleowonders." Meanwhile, the proposal for the park has been sitting for some years on the desk of the head of the Civil Administration and only time will tell how this turns out.
Visitors can go into the Chinese Hole, using a ladder installed for that purpose. Theoretically in the future, if the Jubilee Cave doesn't collapse during roadworks and if the park is inaugurated, a system could be built to enter it too – ladder, stairs, or even an elevator, Frumkin says.
Flowstones that built up over thousands, maybe millions of years in Jubilee Cave Credit: Yoav Negev
Flowstones that built up over thousands, maybe millions of years in Jubilee Cave Credit: Yoav Negev
A lot of people visit the Chinese Hole and while it has some stalactite action in crevices, for the casual visitor, there isn't much to see compared with Jubilee. For geologists, the whole region is extraordinary because most of the karst landscape in Israel is fluvial, with streams flowing to the sea. Around Ofra, the drainage basin is internal, ending in groundwater and not one drop flows surficially to the sea.
Why is the Chinese Hole called that? Because when it was discovered in the 1980s, the researchers joked that it was so deep it must go all the way to the other side of the planet, which isn't China but never mind. The hole is about 60 meters deep. If you go there, keep in mind that you're going to have to climb out again.
In the Jubilee Cave Credit: Boaz Langford / Hebrew University’s Cave Research Center
In the Jubilee Cave Credit: Boaz Langford / Hebrew University’s Cave Research Center
At about 40 meters in height, Jubilee Cave is the highest found to date in Israel Credit: יואב נגב
At about 40 meters in height, Jubilee Cave is the highest found to date in Israel Credit: יואב נגב
