Rebel-Era Tunnels and a Mosaic-Floored Church Open to Visitors at Horbat Burgin, Israel

A hillside village in the Judean Foothills has opened to visitors, and it carries traces of at least three very different chapters of history. At Horbat Burgin, south of Beit Shemesh in Israel, archaeologists found hiding tunnels cut into the rock before a Jewish revolt against Rome, the ruins of a settlement that the revolt appears to have destroyed, and a Byzantine church with colorful mosaic floors.

Background: a village in Adullam-France Park

Horbat Burgin sits inside Adullam-France Park, a landscape of caves and ancient ruins in the Shephelah, the lowland hills between the coastal plain and the Judean Mountains. Excavations there revealed a large settlement from the Second Temple period. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), people lived on the site from that era through the Ottoman period. Dr. Amir Ganor of the IAA describes it as the largest ancient settlement in the surrounding area.

Some researchers propose that the village is Caphar Bish, a settlement that the first-century historian Flavius Josephus mentions. Coverage of the opening presents this as a scholarly interpretation, not a settled fact.

Tunnels dug in preparation for conflict

In the Early Roman period, residents cut an extensive network of hiding tunnels into the bedrock. The IAA links these tunnels to preparations for conflict with Rome. Ganor explained that the soft local stone made digging easy: “The stone is very soft here in the Shphela region, so every house had underground rooms and shelters.” During the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the tunnels were connected so that people could hide and flee, according to the Times of Israel report. About 200 meters of tunnels are open to visitors today.

The Bar Kokhba Revolt ran from AD 132 to 136. The settlement was damaged and destroyed during that uprising. The excavators describe the tunnels as hiding places, so visitors should not picture a single planned military network. The sources do not say how many people used them or when each section was dug.

After the revolt: pagans, burials and a church

After the revolt, a pagan population settled among the ruins. The newcomers built new structures above the earlier remains and carved elaborate underground burial complexes.

In the Byzantine period, builders raised a large church and an associated monastic complex. The church had colorful mosaic floors, and some of them survive and are accessible to visitors. The Times of Israel adds that when the local Christian population later converted to Islam, people destroyed figures in the mosaics. The site became Christian again in the Crusader period, remained inhabited under Mamluk and Ottoman rule, and people abandoned it in the 18th century.

Many columbaria (dovecotes cut for raising pigeons) and winepresses across the settlement and the landscape around it point to an economy built on farming, wine and pigeon breeding.

Looters, excavation and preservation

Ganor, Alon Klein and Dr. Peter Gendelman began excavating in 1995 in response to looters who sold finds on the black market. Looters had broken into burial caves and underground hiding systems and damaged buildings above ground. Ganor told the Times of Israel that once the dig started, the looting stopped. The IAA and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) then conserved and developed the site for visitors, together with the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. Israel National News reports that the inauguration took place at a weekend event, and KKL-JNF Chairman Ostrinsky said, “The story of Horbat Burgin is the story of our land.”

Why it matters, and what remains unclear

Few places let visitors walk through rebel-era hideouts, a pagan settlement layer and a mosaic-floored church in one visit. The site also shows how one hillside served different communities across more than a thousand years.

Several points remain open. The identification with Caphar Bish is a proposal. The press coverage gives no figures for the settlement’s size or population. Reports describe the opening as the first for the tunnels, yet a 2017 Israel Hayom article reported that KKL-JNF opened tunnels at the same site (called Khirbet Burgin there) to visitors, so the 2026 event looks like a new or expanded opening of a site with earlier visitor access. I could not reach the IAA’s own press release, so details here come from coverage that cites it.

Sources

• Israel Antiquities Authority (original statement, not reached directly; see iaa.org.il)
• The Times of Israel: Ancient tunnels that helped Jewish rebels evade the Romans now open for tourists
• Israel National News: 2,000 years after Jewish rebels hid from Rome, their tunnels open to the public
• HeritageDaily: Ancient revolt-era tunnels and Byzantine church revealed in Judean Foothills
• Israel Hayom (2017): JNF opens ancient caves from era of Bar Kokhba revolt

Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority.