powered by FreeFind	Wadi Me'arot 39 pictures     1.30 minutes HQ video The Wadi Me'arot natural reservation on both sides of Wadi Me'arot in the Carmel. It is more than two kilometers long. Wadi Me'arot's origin is around the Druze village Daliat Al Carmel, flows west, to the Mediterranean, south of Kibbutz Neve Yam. The Site A full grown Mediterranean forest has been reserved in the wadi, with its animals. The reservation has a few unique characteristics: A. Several prehistoric caves, settled by humans for 500,000 years. Such a long sequence of human use in the cave is rather rare in the world. B. In the reservation, there is a cliff which was created from an ancient coastal reef, which was elevated above sea level during the geological past. The trip begins at the Taboun Cave. The climb there is in a steep stair path. At the end of the path, just before the cave opening, there is an observation point. Across from it, in the north, the "Finger Cliff" may be seen. It is part of the core of the petrified reef. The Carmel range, including its reefs, exposes steep cliffs on the side facing the sea. The reason is that the waves of the "Tethyan Ocean", flooded large parts of the Middle East, reached the edges of the Carmel Range, hit the rocks and made their bottom parts collapse. Wadi Me'arot Reef was created about a hundred million years ago (Lower Albian-Knommen Age). The reef is composed mainly of rudist fossils, oysters which existed back at that time, in the Tethyan Ocean. After visiting the observation post, it is recommended to notice the Taboun Cave, whose opening is close to the observation post. That cave is the extreme west one among the Early Men's caves along the wadi. The caves were first dug at the end of the 20's by an British team, headed by the researcher Dorothy Garod. At the end of the 60's, a team of American archeologist excavated there. For the past few year, a team from the University of Haifa has been excavating in the site. Inside the cave, a sequence of archeological layers, about 20m thick, was preserved. Those layers hold traces which indicate that the Ancient Man lived in the place about 200,000 years. The researchers identified in the cave three different ancient human cultures: Acheulean, Abbevillian, and Mousterian. The Acheulean culture is the most ancient culture discovered on the Carmel. It started about 500,000 years ago, and lasted about 250,000 years. The human type who lived in the cave was probably the Homo Erectus (the upright man). Those who were part of the culture, lived in small groups, and found their living from hunting and gathering. Their most commonly used tool was a "hand stone", a stone tool that was chiseled and used for skin cleaning (animal skins), cutting, and digging. The layers of filling inside the cave contain quartz sand from the beach. This is an indication that back then, the water in the sea was higher than today, and the coast line was closer to the cave back then. All these were a result of the warming of the earth at the time, which caused the defrosting of the glaciers in the poles. The defrosted glacier water were combining with the sea and ocean waters, raising the water height all throughout the earth. The Tabun (Oven) Cave The Tabun Cave is a carstic cave. The chimney in the ceiling reminds a tabun, an Arab oven for bread baking. For hundred thousands of years, layers of earth combined with traces from the ancient human cultures, were stratified. Most of them have already been excavated by archeologists. The collapse of the cave floor into another carstic space, caused the collapsing and the bending of the lower layers. The archeological sequence that was discovered here, is one of the most ancient, longest sequences known in the present. During that long time, humans of three cultures settled in this cave: The Echeulean, the Abbevillian, and the Mousterian. The definition of those cultures is based upon the typical stone tools, which reflect the technological changes that occurred over time. A female skeleton which was discovered in the cave, is a significant milestone in the human evolution research. Camel Cave The creation of the cave: on top of it, there is some sort of a carstic hole, which caused its creation- water enriched with carbondioxide precipitated through it, melting the rock, and gradually created a space inside it. Such caves are called "bell caves". The Finger Cliff The reef was created about a hundred million years ago, out of chalky skeletons of underwater creatures. Similar to present day reefs, the front of the reef (toward west) is steep and made of inclined layers of fossil erosions. To the east, the rocks are no longer reef rocks, but dolomite rocks, layered in shallow water. The reef core is composed mainly of cone shaped oysters- rudists- living in close-cropped schools, which were able to withstand any condition. Al Wad Cave The beginning of the settlement in the cave began in the Middle Paleolitic Period (the Mousterian culture), but most of the settlement took place during the Upper Paleolitic Period (the Eurinican culture), 20,000-40,000 years before our time. About eight thousand years later, the settlement in the site was resumed by the Netophians, whose traces were discovered in the cave, and on the terrace in front of it, where a large graveyard from that age was discovered. Back to Israel Index