Kivya Pit, Binyamin
- Grid ref.
- 150567/154817
- Location
- West Binyamin
- Elevation
- +199 m
Cave mapView the map (PDF)Description of the cave:
Kivya Pit is a small karst space formed in dolomitic limestone of Cenomanian age (Vradim Formation). Information about the pit was given to the ICRC by Vladimir Boslov and Yuri Lisovich, who visited the site in May 2015. In September of that year the pit was surveyed and mapped by Dvir Raviv, Amos Frumkin, Mika Ullman and Boaz Langford. The pit appears on the topographic maps with the symbol of a water cistern.
The pit looks like a vertical collapse doline that developed on the basis of a rounded space measuring 11X11 m and 6 m deep. The rounded shape of the pit, as well as familiarity with the chamber caves of western Samaria, make it possible to determine that the pit space formed in the phreatic zone. Collapse rocks, which certainly fell when the cave collapsed, are not found today on the floor of the doline and apparently were removed when the place was prepared as a water reservoir. As part of the preparation work the pit walls were plastered with several layers of plaster, which also includes modern concrete sealing. A large concrete cube was built on the floor of the northern part of the pit, apparently in order to allow convenient access to its center even when the pit is full of water. The pit floor is completely covered with many stones and slopes gently south. The pit walls are vertical or slightly inclined inward in a negative profile. The pit rim consists of a bare, horizontal rock surface intended to increase the drainage of water runoff into the pit opening.
Notes:
- Access to the pit is possible on foot over a short walk (300 m) from the separation fence road or on a long walk (about 6 km) from the direction of Ofarim.
- Access from the pit rim to its interior is convenient mainly from its north side, where there is a sloping notch in the pit wall.
Written by: Boaz Langford
