Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud and Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cult
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
113 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 01
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
113 km from Idhnā to Idhnā, about 2 h 01 of riding. On the way it passes Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town, Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cult and back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town. It crosses from Israel into Palestinian Territories - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud → Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 29 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
Length
29 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud
Beneath the low hills of the Judean lowlands, the Shephelah, lies a city of caves. Maresha was an important town of the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period, and its inhabitants carved thousands of chambers into the soft chalk beneath their houses: cisterns, olive presses, stables, quarries, burial caves and columbaria, rooms with hundreds of niches, probably used for raising pigeons. Nearby Bet Guvrin, known to the Romans as Eleutheropolis, became a major city in later centuries. The national park and its caves were listed by UNESCO in 2014 as a microcosm of the land of the caves.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud is where the day begins. Next is Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town.
2. Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
Hebron, al-Khalil in Arabic, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Middle East, set in the hills of the southern West Bank. Its heart is the old town, a warren of stone alleys, covered souqs and Mamluk-era houses, grouped around the great mosque built over the Cave of the Patriarchs, where tradition places the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives. The site is holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, and its name in Arabic, al-Khalil, means the friend, a reference to Abraham as the friend of God.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cult.
3. Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cult
Battir is the quiet village at the heart of this cultural landscape, in the hills southwest of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where terraces of dry stone climb the slopes in layer after layer. They are planted with olives, vines, and the vegetables that Battir is famous for, especially a small, sweet kind of aubergine. UNESCO inscribed the area in 2014 as the Land of Olives and Vines, a cultural landscape of southern Jerusalem, because the terraces, the irrigation channels and the old watch-towers show an agricultural system that has worked for many centuries.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud to Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud → Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town to Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cult
Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town → Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cult is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cult to back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town
Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cult → back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town to Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud
back through Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town → Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.