Me'arat HaTeomim, also known as The Bat Cave, is a nice and pleasant day tiyul, really even just a couple hours, and if it is really hot like it was yesterday it will wipe you out for the whole day!

The Cave is located on a path called Nahal Me'ara just outside of Bet Shemesh. It is accessed via Road 10, behind Bet Shemesh, just about opposite the entrance to Moshav Zanoach.

The hike, if you do the whole path, is about 7 kilometers of easy walking and is good for even little kids. There is no need though to do the whole hike. You can hike just to the Bat Cave and back.

My older son did the hike recently with his class, and he told me that it took them at a good speed about 20 minutes. Today with the little kids, the section to the cave took about an hour or so.

The path is nice and pleasant, mostly shaded, rocky at some points. It leads up to the cave on the left side of the path. The cave is pretty cool. It is pitch black inside the large cavernous cave, so make sure you bring a flashlight if you go on this tiyul. In the cave you will hear the squeals of the bats on the ceiling of the cave. You can go through the cave and experience the sounds and sights from different parts. I don't think there are any vampire bats in this cave, so no need to worry about that..

If you made it this far, you definitely don't want to miss the natural rock slide. After the cave, if you continue along the path literally another five minutes, you will get to a spot where the bedrock is completely smoothed out and you can sit down at the top of the formation and slide down smoothly and quickly. This is a lot of fun after the hiking and the kids and adults all loved it.

Then you turn around and hike back. Enjoy.