Mount Carmel Caves

The long cultural sequence exposed in the four caves and rock-shelters that make up the Nahal Me’arot site, Tabun, Jamal, el-Wad and Skhul, extends from the Lower Palaeolithic to the present day, thus representing nearly a million years of human evolution. In addition to evidence for numerous palaeo-environmental fluctuations, there are also several well-preserved burials of two Middle Paleolithic human types (Neanderthals and Early Anatomically Modern Humans) and passage from nomadic hunter-gatherer groups to complex, sedentary agricultural societies is extensively documented at the site. Taken together, these emphasize the paramount significance of the Mount Carmel caves for the study of human cultural and biological evolution within the framework of palaeo-ecological changes. Nahal Mearot has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO – June 2012.