Tel Zion Cave

Location

Tel Zion

Description of the cave:

A single-chamber cave measuring 13X10 m, up to 2 m high. The chamber has two wings: central and northern, partially separated by stalactites, stalagmites and columns. The entrance breached by the quarrying opens at the eastern end of the central wing, and hardly damaged the chamber. Entry today requires a short crawl - about one meter. On the floor of each wing there are several stalagmites, most of them well preserved. Other deposits also exist, among them corals, curtains, boxwork, and a calcite crust on clays that remained thin and exposed after the clay was washed away. The cave ceiling is mostly covered with dense stalactites. Many of them are active, and many are broken.

The central wing reaches a height of 2 m and is damaged by looting of stalactites, as well as by rocks and construction debris that entered from outside, and by recent collapses of ceiling parts with stalactites. These are perhaps related to the explosions that accompanied the breaching of the cave entrance.

At the western end of the central wing there are thick calcite flowstone sheets. On this side of the chamber there is also strong condensation corrosion that crumbled the host rock and left prominent calcite veins resembling boxwork.

The northern wing is low (0.5-1 m) and requires entering by crawling. This wing is well preserved and is covered almost entirely with speleothems. Some of the stalagmites sank into a clayey floor and later were displaced and fell naturally, perhaps in earthquakes. The cave corals in this wing show a directionality indicating air currents.