This page was translated from Hebrew and has not been reviewed yet. The Hebrew page is the reference. עברית

Caves of the Northern Shfela and the Coastal Plain

Concrete Cones, Kiryat Sefer

Grid ref.: 154333/148892
Location: Kiryat Sefer
Elevation: 290 m above sea level

Description of the cave:

Concrete Cones Cave is a large cave that developed by phreatic dissolution processes in Turonian-age limestone (Bina Fm.). The cave is structured as a wide chamber measuring 51X28 m, whose height ranges between 0.3 and 2.5 m.

The cave was exposed during the work of heavy engineering equipment operating at the site to prepare building land for the establishment of the town of Modi'in Illit-Kiryat Sefer. During the work the machines exposed a wide opening, which opened in the northern part of the cave chamber, close to its ceiling. The destruction of the chamber ceiling, and of part of its northern wall, created a huge pile of collapse rocks that covers most of the cave floor. The collapse pile descends from the northern side of the cave space to the chamber walls on all sides, and divides it into sub-spaces. After the work was completed, buildings and sidewalks were built over part of the cave space, and the cave entrance was blocked down to a narrow slit through which one can penetrate to the center of the chamber, which today looks like an independent space measuring 22X10 and 3 m high. The floor of this space slopes south and consists of many collapse rocks, construction spill and abundant debris. The ceiling of the space is bedrock and continues in natural steps from the highest point of the space down to its base. These steps appear to have formed as a result of rocks detaching along the bedding planes of the rock (dip of beds at azimuth 130, dip 9.9).

From the entrance space there is a wide passage that continues to the northeast and curves to the northwest. This passage in fact continues along the edges of the original chamber until its final blockage by the collapse pile that formed when the cave was discovered. In this area, at the end of the passage, there is a concentration of cave deposits seen mainly in the cave ceiling (soda straws and elephant ears) and a few on its floor (stalagmites, flowstone).

On the southwestern side of the entrance chamber there is a wide opening leading to the southern and western part of the chamber. This part, located far from the damaged area of the cave, was preserved somewhat better, and a wide-dimensioned chamber structure stands out in it. A large step in the cave ceiling also contributed to the preservation of the southwestern part of the cave, by creating a certain barrier between the different parts of the cave and stopping most of the mass of the collapse pile. Another element that damaged this part of the cave space was deep boreholes, made for laying foundations in the area above the cave space, which happened to hit the space beneath them. Through these boreholes, fill materials such as local soil, sea sand and concrete were poured, in an attempt to fill the space that had been discovered. These fill materials were poured into the cave space in cone-shaped piles that gave the cave its name. Between the cones that formed, the children of the town built a play area made of boards and metal bars, which are currently in an advanced state of disassembly. The perishable wooden boards attract to this point several arthropods that live in the vicinity of organic matter (observed: bristletails, cockroaches, spiders). Between the concrete cones and the play area, many cave deposits remained in the cave ceiling, concentrated in great density. Some of the cave deposits are covered with a layer of concrete and most are broken and damaged. Thin tree roots also hang from the cave ceiling, with drops of water condensed on them, evidence of the high humidity prevailing in the cave, which is closed most of the time.

At the southeastern end of this area the space continues as a wide passage between and beneath the collapse rocks at the bottom of the entrance chamber.

Notes:

Access to the entrance of Concrete Cones Cave is possible via Menachat Chinuch Street. The cave entrance looks like a narrow horizontal slit opening at the bottom of a rock step standing in front of a yeshiva. In the middle of Menachat Chinuch Street is the entrance of Menachat Chinuch Cave.
Entering Concrete Cones Cave requires clearing stones from the entrance. One can clear the center of the slit, where there is a point wide enough to enter the cave.
No bats were observed in the cave.

Written by: Boaz Langford