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Tlalim Cave

Grid ref.: 130157/042578
Location: Northern Negev
Elevation: 487 m above sea level

Description of the cave:

Tlalim Cave is a small cave that developed by hypogenic dissolution processes, in limestone of Turonian age, and was exposed at the crest of a watershed line, in the northern bank of Nahal Haiman. The total length of the cave reaches 27 m and its total depth 10.5 m.

The cave has a small, rounded entrance (0.3X0.4 m) that opens at the bottom of a shallow depression. The cave entrance was discovered by Amnon Livne, who wrote about the site in his book "Ramat Negev - Landscape Survey and Hiking Routes", Israel Nature and Parks Authority 1993.

The cave entrance opens at the head of a vertical space about 6 m deep. In the pit space, as in the other parts of the cave, there are signs of rounded dissolution in the form of wide niches or narrow, rounded passages extending in various directions. At its bottom the pit connects to a pair of rounded spaces that developed side by side along a general north-south axis. In the walls of the spaces, in their northern part, there are dry cave deposits that look like a rounded form of cave coralloids. The floor of the spaces slopes south and is mostly covered with rocks that collapsed from the ceiling of the space or fell from the cave entrance. In the area close to the cave entrance, IDF debris and animal bones are also scattered. South of the pair of spaces there is a wide room, measuring 2X4 m, with a high dissolution dome opening in its ceiling. From this room the cave continues in two directions: on the eastern side of the center of the room there is a very narrow passage continuing east, from which a cold gust of wind emerges. On the southern side of the room there is a narrow, low opening leading to a horizontal passage that after about 8 m becomes too low to pass.

Access:

The cave entrance can be reached from the gate of Kibbutz Tlalim by off-road vehicle or on foot.
The descent into the cave requires the help of a rope, without the need for rappelling equipment.
No bats were observed in the cave, but a little guano was found.

Equipment:

A 10 m rope for the descent into the cave.

Written by: Boaz Langford

Cave name: Tlalim Cave