In , a concert with electronic music by the French composer Francois Bayle was held in the cave to celebrate the inauguration of the upper galleries. This event was organized by the Lebanese artist and sculptor Ghassan Klink. The caverns closed to the public due to the Lebanese civil war in ; The caves reopened in Jeita I sometimes referred to as Nahr-el-Kelb is a dry cave, 56 metres deep to the east of the source cave from where the river flows and connected to it by narrow channels.
It was first noted in by Botta and excavated by Godefroy Zumoffen in two positions in , , and It was later excavated by Auguste Bergy with materials from both excavations now with the Museum of Lebanese Prehistory, the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut and the private collection of Dr. Henri Fleisch noticed an Upper Paleolithic level with further finds including polished Neolithic pieces, primitive potsherds, burned bones and end scrapers.
Evidence of later occupation included a Chalcolithic tripod pot found by Father Fleisch and a combed-ware sherd suggested to date to the Early Bronze Age levels at Byblos. Excavations were made by the Duc de Luynes and Lartet in , by Zumoffen in and and by Bergy in A large number of flint tools, bones and hearths were found that were accredited to the Aurignacian.
Further excavations were made in by Francis Hours which revealed much more extensive, deeper and richer deposits than had previously been suspected.
Father Hours permitted Lorraine Copeland to disclose that the upper material appeared to display late Upper Paleolithic or early Mesolithic characteristics, probably including Kebaran.
Excavation was to be continued but the area was fenced off and owned by the government. Jeita III The Caverns was a deposit of brown soil that fell from a location suggested to be at the east end of Jeita II, just inside the entrance to the grotto where the tourists are conducted by boat. It was found in by the Speleologists Club and excavated by Father Hours.
Flint tools found in the deposit were geometric in design and suggested to be a form of Natufian or later Mesolithic than discovered at Jeita II, from where it may have been displaced. Forms of these flints included rectangles with straight or oblique truncation, borers of the "crochet" type, micro-burins, end scrapers, bladelet cores, two transverse arrowheads, crescents and short triangles.
Some of the crescents had ridged backs and resembled those found at Nahal Oren. Material is stored with the Museum of Lebanese Prehistory. Jeita IV Mugharet-el-Mal is a rock shelter in the cliff upstream from the grotto. It once contained a large quantity of Paleolithic material which has been looted and was deemed unfit for excavation by Sami Karkaby, Director of the Caverns in Study of the lithic remains at this shelter were hoped to shed further light on the Paleolithic or Mesolithic communities that inhabited the different sites at different times.
The Jeita grotto is located within the Lower-Middle Jurassic strata of Keserouane which has a stratigraphic thickness of and consists of dolomite and micritic limestone. The Keserouane formation was exposed to air by a local uplift during the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. The Keserouane strata became karstified after its aerial exposure and then was buried during the Cretaceous. In the Neogene, upon the final uplift of Mount Lebanon, this early karstification phase was reactivated. At the Nahr al-Kalb valley, the impervious Upper Jurassic volcanic rocks and Lower Cretaceous sand slant almost vertically forming a hydrogeological barrier and forcing the outlet of the Jeita underground river to the surface.
This barrier could be the reason for the westernmost, large cave chambers with heights exceeding. Karstification of the Keserouane limestone was further intensified by the steep topography of the area and the volume of precipitation over the Lebanon more than mm. At first, he ventured only around 50 meters into the cave. However, after reaching an underground river, he fired a shot from his gun. The resulting echoes convinced him that he had found something big.
Other journeys were made into the cave over the next years. They would soon reveal a cave with both upper and lower chambers and an overall length that totals nearly nine kilometers. Today, the Jeita Grotto is a famous show cave and a major tourist stop that hosts around , guests per year. First opened to the public in , the lower cave has a normal temperature of 16 degrees Celsius 60 F.
Additionally, its overall length is 6, meters 20, ft. Aside from being a Lebanese national symbol and a top tourist destination, the Jeita grotto plays an important social, economic and cultural role in the country. It was one of top 14 finalists in the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition. Iguazu Falls. Ha Long Bay. Table Mountain. PP Underground River. Jeju Island. Do you have any questions about the New7Wonders campaigns?
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