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

Umm Sus Cave

Grid ref.: 1629/1538
Location: North of the community of Nahliel
Elevation: 486 m above sea level

Description of the Cave:

Umm Sus Cave is a medium-sized cave composed mainly of a wide room and several passages that developed in limestone of Albian age (Givat Yearim Fm.).

The cave entrance opens at the bottom of a rock step, in the middle of the bed of a small channel, Wadi a-Naqa, which descends along a general north-to-south axis, as part of the drainage basin of Wadi Zarqa. The dimensions of the original cave entrance are 3.2X4 m and its shape is rounded. The cave entrance was mostly blocked by a stone wall in whose center a rectangular opening with a vault was built (measuring 1.1X2.4 m) and on both sides of which tiny square windows were built. An iron door that once blocked this opening is now located in the middle of the space on the inner side of the opening. This space looks like a large room with a horizontal floor, covered with a layer of dark soil, and a horizontal, sooty ceiling. The room measures 6X5.5 and its height is 2.5 m. On the inner side of the cave entrance, adjacent to the western wall of the entrance space, there is a built rock step and above it, in the chamber wall, 10 small niches are carved side by side.

On the southern side of the entrance space there are three rounded openings leading to three passages that extend south. The two eastern passages extend for 5.5 m and in the middle between them there is an opening connecting them. The western passage is shorter than the two mentioned and extends for only 1.5 m.

West of the opening of the western passage, on the western side of the entrance space, there is a wide opening (2X1.5 m) of arched shape, leading to a wide passage that extends south. The passage floor is horizontal and covered with a layer of dark soil, its ceiling is also horizontal and its walls are rounded. The passage measures 2.8X1.3 m and its length is 8 m. In the inner part of the passage there is a rounded natural niche extending west, in which a single individual of the greater mouse-tailed bat was observed

Notes:

The cave entrance can be reached on foot from the entrance to the community of Nahliel.
The cave entrance is slightly concealed by ivy bushes and Palestine oak trees.
The cave tick is present in the cave - visitors were bitten and individuals were seen.
In the ceiling of the cave entrance space a large mud nest of a little swift was found.

Written by: Boaz Langford