A weighted beam for squeezing out the olive oil is seen in an Oil Press Cave at Bet-Guvrin and Maresha National Park, Israel, on June 28, 2014. This is one of 22 underground oil presses discovered in Hellenistic Maresha. Most of them have one crushing installation, two or three feature press beams. Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands as a Microcosm of the Land of the Caves in Israel were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on June 22, 2014. This "city under a city" is characterized by a selection of man-made caves, excavated from the thick and homogenous layer of soft chalk in Lower Judea. It includes chambers and networks with varied forms and functions, situated below the ancient twin towns of Maresha and Bet Guvrin, that bear witness to a succession of historical periods of excavation and usage stretching over 2,000 years, from the Iron Age to the Crusades, as well as a great variety of subterranean construction methods. The original excavations were quarries, but these were converted for various agricultural and local craft industry purposes, including oil presses, columbaria (dovecotes), stables, underground cisterns and channels, baths, tomb complexes and places of worship, and hiding places during troubled times. (Xinhua/Li Rui)
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