War, peace, treasure and tradition, in the tunnels and cave systems of 21st C Levant

This article was inspired by Israeli and western press characterisation of Hamas-tunnels in Gaza, as if they were novel and somehow shameful and outrageous defensive constructions, when Israel itself has plenty. Having a basic knowledge of the geomorphology, climate, and archaeology of the region, I found it hard to believe that defensive and economic tunnels were either a recent or an uncommon phenomenon there.  Exploring this surmise proved to be fascinating, and it was hard to restrain myself to a single article, rather than a book, because if ever there was a region made for mirages, genies, underground cities, secret tunnels, and treasure caves, this is it.

Underground tunnels and cave systems, natural and engineered

Underground caves and caverns and tunnels (often lava tunnels, which can stretch kilometres) are common natural phenomena that most people don’t think about, however they have been sites of complex habitation and defence. We all know how early humans lived in caves during the last ice-age, painting on their walls in places like Lascaux in Dordogne, France, and the Ennedi caves in Saharan Chad.  30 or 40 million people still live in the Yaodongs or cave houses of Northern China, which go back to the Bronze Age.[1]  Major international cities have substantial underground developments, including Montreal, Toronto, Amsterdam, and Singapore. In hot Australian desert-towns, like Coober Pedy and Alice Springs, people have dug underground dwellings.

Caves and other subterranean formations have also often been used in war. Guerillas in the Vietnam War managed to survive, and fight, and win, to a large part by using networks of limestone caves in Vietnam.  You can visit some of these caves and hear their history today.  Most historic cities in Ukraine had underground galleries for refuge purposes that might have served better more recently, if they had been maintained.[2]  There is a deep underground naval base in Muskö, Sweden, Finland has tens of thousands of underground bomb shelters, and Moscow sits upon a network of tunnels, bunkers, warehouses and catacombs, as do London, Paris, Rome, and many other cities and towns.

Geology of Caves and Tunnels in the Middle East (Western Asia)

It seems that the Middle East (or Western Asia) is particularly rich in caves and tunnels, where their use goes back to ancient times, and often to prehistoric times. This region is characterized by geophysical friction between the Arabian tectonic plate to the east and the African tectonic plate to the west. These structural dynamics have resulted in profuse volcanic mountain chains, lava tunnels, earthquakes, faults, and changes to sea-level, with repeated layered, faulted and compacted sedimentary deposits of sandstone and limestone, where water can form caves and sink-holes. Importantly, soft layers of lava, ash, and loess, are abundant, and relatively easy for humans to tunnel through. They often become exposed in canyons chiselled by the flooding of numerous wadis (non-permanent rivers generated from rainfall in mountainous regions).

Political geomorphology: Hydrocarbons and war

These tumultuous geophysics are also associated with massive deposits of hydrocarbons, notably oil and gas, which are the cause of modern colonial wars and takeovers.   A contemporary example is Gaza Marine Gasfield, 30 km off the coast of Gaza. Discovered in the late 1990s, plans for its development have been delayed, secretive, and suspiciously coincident with the October 7 Israeli defence failure and the subsequent Gaza genocide.[3] See illustration of Arabian plate techtonics.[4]

Subterranean Geology and Defence in Ancient Western Asia

Before we look at some subterranean specifics for Afghanistan, Iran, Israel-Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Turkey, let us look at some ancient works and traditions, involving subterranean architecture and engineering, still relevant today in the region, both for day-to-day survival in regions with extremes of cold and heat, as well as defence.

The Ancient Nabataeans who built Petra and Hegra: (Approximately from 4th C BC to Roman annexation in 106 BC). These nomadic traders [5] were known for their desert hydraulic systems, which included spate irrigation, underground cisterns and tunnels and channels to collect and store scarce rainwater, modified cave-dwellings, and massive monuments and buildings carved into giant sandstone boulders and cliffs, of which the most spectacular are probably Petra, in Jordan, and Hegra in Saudi Arabia.

In the ancient world the Nabateans were famous for avoiding enslavement by hiding out in the desert, which they knew intimately, getting water from secret covered bottle-shaped underground cisterns, marked by signs only they recognised, until their pursuers surrendered or died of thirst. They thus avoided enslavement by the ancient Assyrians, the kings of the Medes and the Persians, the Macedonians, and the Greeks, although their name and culture were finally subsumed into Roman culture, in 106AD.[6]

The Nabataean Kingdom spread between the Arabian and Sinai Peninsulas. It was bounded to the north by the kingdom of Judea, and to the south-west by Ptolemaic Egypt. Its capital was the city of Raqmu (Petra) in Jordan, and it included the towns of Bosra, Hegra (Mada'in Saleh) in Saudi Arabia, and Nitzana/Nessana in Israel’s Negev Desert.  See illustration by Daniel Gibson.[7]

"While Petra and Mada’in Saleh (Hegra) share striking similarities, they are distinct archaeological sites located in different countries. Petra graces Jordan, while Mada’in Saleh resides in Saudi Arabia. Both sites, however, bear witness to the architectural prowess of the Nabateans, an ancient Arab people who once dominated the caravan trade in the Arabian Peninsula. Petra served as the Nabatean Kingdom's capital and largest city, while Mada’in Saleh was its second-largest settlement. The common thread between these sites lies in their captivating Nabatean rock-hewn monuments, featuring highly adorned tombs. Both also showcase the Nabateans' ingenuity in water management, evident through structures such as wells, water tunnels, cisterns, and reservoirs." (The Archaeologist, https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/discover-hegra-saudi-arabias-historic-treasure-and-unesco-world-heritage-site)

Subterranean Geology, development, and defence, in various Western Asian countries

Geological conditions have not changed all that much in the modern Western Asian world, and going by recent events, neither have geopolitics. For defensive reasons it would be sensible for the peoples of the region to continue to practice discretion regarding the location of any cave-systems and tunnels.

Afghanistan: People may remember that Osama Bin Laden was suspected at one time of evading US forces by hiding or living in apparently extensive caves, including the Tora Bora cave system in Afghanistan, which relied on natural caverns formed by stream-eroded limestone, in the Spin Ghar mountain range. [8]

The Tora Bora cave system is not the only one in Afghanistan. There are many subterranean caverns and caves there, such as the ancient caves in Bamyan, where people live to this day; the ‘Bhuddist’ caves of Basawal; the cave-system of Zhawar Kii, which includes 50 natural caves, some modified or engineered caves and tunnels, plus a few above-ground structures, which have been used to store and conceal resources in wartime.  

Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Oman, and UAE,[9] are known in the region for their man-made underground gravity flow irrigation systems, called Qanats, composed of shafts and tunnels intersecting a water table beneath a hill, guiding a sustainable underground flow via gravity, towards an external irrigation conduit.  These ingenious systems contribute to the flowering of desert oases.[10] In Afghanistan the Mujihadeen enlarged and reinforced these for secret tunnels, and US-NATO forces often destroyed them, apparently without realizing their agricultural indispensability.[11]

Iran: In Iran, there are numerous famous natural caves, and some towns or villages carved into rock, notably Kandovan village, where living spaces have been excavated in cliffs, and Hilevar and Meymand villages, which adapted cavities inside mountains and hills.[12]

There is also the famous underground city of Noushabad. Fifteen centuries old, although possibly inhabited up until the early 20th century,[13] it was only discovered in 2006, by a farmer digging a well. It exists below the small above-ground town of the same name. Built for people to hide from enemy invasions, living on food and water stored there, it has three levels, 4-18m deep, connected by vertical wells, with defensive structural complexities, such as blind diversion tunnels, trapdoors, and concealed distant entrances and exits. U-shaped ventilation shafts promote air circulation, and the town water was formerly stored in a vast, beautifully designed chamber. No bricks were used in its structure, but it was hand-dug in very tough rock which probably required tools of diamond-hardness.

See the video below of Noushabad. There are lots of them on you tube if you are curious to see more.

Iran has been attacked and threatened over a long period by the United States and Israel,[14] which covet its oil reserves and strategic position. Both those states have nuclear weapons, and neither submits to inspections, and they are united in a fear that Iran will develop its own. President Trump unilaterally ended an agreement with Iran for it to refrain from enriching uranium to a point where it could produce nuclear weapons. Iran has denounced Israel for attacking its Fordow uranium enrichment plant and assassinating a nuclear scientist.[15] The United States assassinated Iran’s revered General Qassem Soleimani in 2022, and then Israel massacred close to 100 people who were attending anniversary commemoration of his death in 2024.[16] In light of these attitudes and actions, it is hardly surprising that Iran has been building an extremely deep nuclear power plant near Natanz - in the side of a mountain, far deeper than any before. It is thought that some Iranian uranium-enriching centrifuges were destroyed by an electronic virus, but that has not stopped the project, which may be beyond the reach of the US GBU-57 bomb that purports to penetrate to 60 metres underground. The Natanz facility is probably 20 to 40 metres deeper.

“[…] Four entrances have been dug into the mountainside, two to the east and another two to the west. Each is 6 meters (20 feet) wide and 8 meters (26 feet) tall. The scale of the work can be measured in large dirt mounds, two to the west and one to the east. Based on the size of the spoil piles and other satellite data, experts at the center told AP that Iran is likely building a facility at a depth of between 80 meters (260 feet) and 100 meters (328 feet).[17]

Israel-Palestine:

Whilst the Israeli government has been obliterating Gaza and its population post 7 October 2023, with the stated aim of destroying an extensive tunnel system there, Israel itself has a well-known secret nuclear weapon facility concealed several stories underground, in Dimona in the Negev Desert,[18] an area with many natural caves, and who knows what other subterranean developments.

In recent history, militant Zionist groups operating illegally in British Mandatory Palestine, including the Haganah, the Irgun, and the Stern Gang, constructed hundreds of underground tunnels known as ‘sliks,’ where they made and hid weapons. These were located under schools, synagogues, kibbutzes, and any place the British were unlikely to look. It is said that every Jewish settlement had one, in addition to many private ones, and some national ones.[19]

A 1951 Israeli civil defence law required all homes, residential and industrial buildings to have bomb shelters. IDF bunkers, old and new, are scattered around the country’s borders.

Ancient tunnels and cave adaptations also exist, including an archaeological tunnel dug the length of the Western Wall of the Al-Aqsa compound in the old city of Jerusalem. There are 11 treasure caves in the Judean Desert, near the Dead Sea, of which the most famous contained the Dead Sea Scrolls. Defensive tunnels, some multi-level and many-roomed, are to be found in the Judaean lowland and the Galilee, dating back to the Jewish Bar-Kokhba revolt against the Romans from the 2nd century AD, or even earlier, to the 1st century revolts.[20] Archaeologists recently uncovered the remains of an ancient settlement with secret tunnels used by Jews against the Romans, in the Negev Desert.[21] Nesher-Ramla, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, a site settled and resettled since prehistoric times, had more than 50 underground tunnel complexes dating back to Jewish-Roman times.[22]

"’Since the tight burrows virtually nullified the power and training of the legions and made it hard for the heavily armored soldiers to maneuver, Roman troops rarely entered the hiding complexes, preferring instead to smoke out any resistance,’ Klein says. ‘This method is attested both by the Jewish historian Josephus for the First Revolt and rabbinic sources from after the Bar Kochba Revolt. The difficulties encountered by Hadrian's troops mirror those that Israeli soldiers face in hunting down Hamas terrorists in the tunnels they dug under Gaza,’ Raviv and Klein note.

’We thought it might take a month or two for the IDF to take control of Gaza, but conquering 'upper' Gaza is not a problem: taking underground Gaza is a much bigger problem," Klein says. "Since it's very easy for fighters to move from one area to another underground, you end up fighting ghosts. For the Romans, it was the same.’"[23]

 The ancient Nabataean trade route passed through the Negev Desert, and ruins remain of Nabataean towns (Haluza, Mamshit, Avdat and Shivta) and Nabataean underground cisterns, such as the group known as Bor Havarim (Chavarim Pit).

According to Jewish apocalyptic scripture, God will create tunnels underground for Jews who died outside Israel to reach the Mount of Olives from their dispersed graves. In the first decades of the 21st century, beneath Jerusalem’s main cemetery at Givat Shaul, a huge underground necropolis has been built, with tunnels ‘branching into a grid of three “avenues” and seven “streets”,’ from which a shaft rises tens of metres to the surface.[24]

Syria: Syria’s geophysical environment is propitious for the formation of caves and tunnels, and, like most countries in the region, has many underground cistern complexes. It meets with several tectonic fault-lines: the Palmyride Mountains, the Euphrates Fault System, the Abd el Aziz-Sinjar uplifts, and the Dead Sea Fault System, with the region-typical combination of volcanic fields and repeated sedimentary layers reflecting variations in sea-level and coastline. It shares the Harrat-Ash-Shaarm volcanic field with Jordan and Saudi Arabia (See Jordan section). War-time has highlighted the role of both natural and engineered tunnels, caves, tombs and cellars, ancient and new, as ‘tens of thousands’ of people have taken refuge in these in the mountainous areas of northern Syria,[25] and armies hide out in them too.[26]

Jordan: Jordan, where the Nabataens built their underground-water supplied capital, now famous as the stone-carved city of Petra, is par excellence a domain of underground limestone caves, and lava tubes, caves, and aquifers.  As far back as the Chalcolithic period,[27] people there were harvesting and storing water underground, using complex cisterns and tunnels.[28] The oldest known dam in the world and the oldest proto-urban settlement in Jordan was Jawa,[29] in the huge volcanic desert-province known as Harrat-Ash-Shaam, which is shared among Syria and Saudi Arabia. It has many accessible lava tunnels and caves, mostly only known to locals.[30]

Saudi Arabia: There are thousands of caves in Saudi Arabia.

“Very little was written about Saudi Arabia’s caves before 1983, even though its limestone beds and lava fields are dotted with thousands of holes leading to caves that were formed at least a million years ago.”[31] “In the western half of Saudi Arabia, lie 85,000 square kilometres of barren lava fields. Here cave explorers have found long, smooth tunnels, some of them up to three million years old. These are called lava tubes and they contain the bones of people and animals that lived in Arabia long ago.” (John and Susana Pint.)[32]  

Saudi Arabia is the site of numerous slightly documented ruins of varying ages and origins, and home to the second most important Nabataean city of Hegra. It is difficult to find examples of tunnels and underground living, although that does not mean they do not exist. There is a relatively modern one in Al Yanfa village, built on very steep slopes of a mountain range Sahn Tamnia in Southwest Saudi Arabia. Rather than negotiate steep mountain paths in the village, all houses are connected by underground passages, which are also used to shelter from the heat and sandstorms.[33] A warren of early 20th century tunnels stretch for kilometres beneath Jeddah’s historic Al-Balad district. Apaprently their purpose was to separate foot traffic from road traffic, although they are little-used these days.[34]  Qanats supplied Saudi Arabian settlements in the past, although their extent and distribution are not well documented, but I did read that a qanat saved Jeddah when Portuguese invaders believed they had cut off the water supply. The inhabitants were able to survive on the underground qanat water.[35]

Yemen: Continuous with Saudi Arabia is Yemen. Like Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s geomorphology is typical of the Middle East, with large deposits of loess among volcanic and sedimentary forms, and some major fault-lines.[36] One source recently reported that Hezbollah was teaching Yemenis to construct tunnels for defence against Saudi attacks.[37] Given the geology and regional traditions, this is plausible, if the particular example is unverifiable. It seems, however, entirely possible that Yemenis could themselves have continued the hydraulic and tunneling technologies of their Bedouin ancesters. Indeed, Aden, the capital of south Yemen, had a complex ancient system of cisterns of 53 tanks carved out of the Tawila Wadi in the Shamsan mountains. Their purpose was flood management and water storage. Dating back to at least 115BC, the system was buried in debris by the time the British arrived. The British apparently tried to restore it, but modified the original design, destroying archaeological information and flood-water control, leaving a non-functioning tourist attraction.[38]

Yemen is also famous for a spectacularly large, deep, and ancient sinkhole, known as the Well of Bahout.[39]

Other infamously deep sinkholes are Al-Hota, in Syria, and the Khasfa, near Mosul in Iraq, in both of which Isis disposed of the bodies of multiple victims.

Turkey: Cappadocia, Turkey, is famous for its approximately 200 interconnected ancient secret underground cities, including Kaymakli and Derinkuyu. Derinkuyu is the biggest known underground city. Built as a refuge for Christians, some 17 stories deep, and capable of housing about 20,000 people, it was carved out of soft layers of lava and ash in the 7th and 8th century. It is located in a fantastic natural setting of towers, cones, valleys and caves, wind-sculpted from the rocky landscape.[40]

Conclusion

That concludes my short exploration of some of the ancient and traditional use of tunnels in Western Asia, how the geomorphology of the region contributes to this characteristic, and how it is not confined to Gaza or to 21st century warfare, or even to warfare.

Tunnels may serve economic, military, domestic, and military purposes, and their scale may vary enormously, from household refuge or store, shelter from climate extremes, to military barrack or fortress.

As Christina Steenkamp argues, tunnels can augment the power of weaker groups by augmenting their territory in an undetectable way that permits them to avoid the above-ground official rules, enforcement, checkpoints, and borders of powerful states. They can force those states to adapt to subterranean challenges by people they might normally repress without a second thought. Those guerrilla subterranean challenges can boost the importance of states and bring them official recognition. Tunnels can also serve as underground routes of supply and commerce, in time of conflict and in peacetime.[41]

This use of tunnels allows weaker states or resistance groups to prolong conflicts and thereby to survive in the face of the desire of powerful states to wipe their opposition out.

Steenkamp does not talk about deep tunnels as nuclear bunkers, but a mountainous country with deep and extensive tunnel networks linked to underground water reserves might have a better chance than most, with Iran’s Natanz nuclear power plant a case in point.

NOTES

[1] “Yaodong: The cave homes of China that co-exist with modern, high-tech buildings,” Hindustani Times, 10 January 2023. https://htschool.hindustantimes.com/editorsdesk/knowledge-vine/yaodong-the-cave-homes-of-china-that-co-exist-with-modern-high-tech-buildings

[2] Zhidkova Т., Selikhova Y., Kazachenko V. (2022). Urban-aspects aspects of organization of energy-ecient under-ground space for protection. Theory and practice of design. Аrchitecture and construction. 1(25). P. 140-148. doi: 10.18372/2415-8151.25.16790  And, Paul J. Springer, “Going underground: Ukraine’s subterranean fighters highlight the benefit – and long history – of tunnels in warfare,” April 26, 2022 10.35pm AEST https://theconversation.com/going-underground-ukraines-subterranean-fighters-highlight-the-benefit-and-long-history-of-tunnels-in-warfare-181454

[3] Ambassador Hesham Youssef, “How a Gaza Marine Deal Could Benefit Palestinians, Israelis and the Region Rare progress on a 23-year-old project shows that energy is increasingly becoming a focus for potential win-win agreements in the East Mediterranean.”  August 3, 2023. https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/08/how-gaza-marine-deal-could-benefit-palestinians-israelis-and-region  Ironically, this hopeful publication occurred three months before the Gaza genocide.

[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_Plate#/media/File:Arabian_Plate_showing_general_tectonic_and_structural_features,_Infracambrian_rift_salt_basins,_and_oil_and_gas_fields_of_Central_Arabia_and_North_Gulf_area.svg  By Joshua Doubek - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.‌org/w/index.php?‌‌curid=27171089

[5] “In Petra’s immediate environment, there is archaeological evidence of both temporary tent-like structures, thus, being more ‘mobile architecture’ pertaining to a more nomadic way of life, as well as well-built and more substantial structures that represent a more sedentary aspect of Nabataean society.“ Claudia Naeser et al., Investigating Marginality within the Framework of Socio-Ecological Interaction Models. 2021, p.50. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351055146

[6] The main source on this is Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, relating what Hieronymus of Cardia, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, is supposed to have documented, from a personal encounter with the Nabataens in about 330BC. Taylor, Jane, Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans, I.B.Tauris, pp14,17. ISBN 978-1-86064-508-2.

[7] Suggested Nabataen trading routes of the ancient Middle East, when Petra was the last stop for caravans carrying spices before being shipped to European markets through the Port of Gaza. Source: Daniel Gibson, “Nabatean Trade Routes, Nabatea.Net, ”https://nabataea.net/explore/travel_and_trade/nabataean-trade-routes/.

[8] See for instance, Colonel John Mulholland’s statement here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/campaign/ground/torabora.html The Tora Bora Cave complex in Afghanistan.  The CIA financed the development of this cave complex for the Mujahideen after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  It was reputed to have housed 2000 men and included a hospital, a hydroelectric power plant, offices, a hotel, and arms stores.  Tora Bora and the surrounding Spin Ghar range had natural caverns formed by streams eating into the limestone.

[9] “Qanats are a traditional source of water management that exists throughout much of the Middle East, and extending into North Africa, Spain and South Asia.” Mark Manuel et al, “The sustainability of ancient water control techniques in Iran: an overview,” Water Hist, DOI 10.1007/s12685-017-0200-7

[10] From the Middle East, they were imitated in India and China, and in Spain, via the Ottoman Empire. Spanish conquerers may have introduced the concept into South America, where it is still used in Chile and Peru, or it could be a parallel indigenous invention. “The Qanat System: Ancient Technology for Sustainable Water Use,” 5 August 2021 - Water // Opinions. https://revolve.media/opinions/the-qanat-system-ancient-technology-for-sustainable-water-use

[11] R. Lee Hadden, Adits, caves, karizi-qanats, and tunnels in Afghanistan: anAdits, caves, karizi-qanats, and tunnels in Afghanistan: an annotated bibliographyannotated bibliography, Digital Commons, University of South Florida, 2022, https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=kip_articles.

[12] Siamak Hashemi, The architecture of underground dwellings in Iran, World Tunnelling Congress 2019, pp.72-77. DOI:10.1201/9780429424441-8.

[13] Siamak Hashemi, The architecture of underground dwellings in Iran, World Tunnelling Congress 2019, p.77. DOI:10.1201/9780429424441-8.

[14] The U.S. government has formally acknowledged its role in the 1953 Iranian coup d’etat, releasing previously classified government documents in August 2013, demonstrating its involvement in the planning and the execution of the Iranian 1953 coup d’etat.  In 1979 Iranians overthrew the US-aligned government and installed an Islamic one, probably in part because it was only possible to organise against the US-imposed government, secretly, via the mosques. Find more references here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

[15] Maziar Motamedi, “Iran says Israeli ‘sabotage’ on Fordow nuclear plant foiled,” 14 March 2022. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/14/iran-says-israeli-sabotage-on-fordow-nuclear-plant-foiled

[16] “Iran blames Israel, US for deadly blasts near grave of Guards general Soleimani,” 04/01/2024, https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240104-iran-blames-israel-us-for-deadly-twin-blasts-near-grave-of-guards-general-soleimani

[17] “The center’s analysis, which it provided exclusively to AP, is the first to estimate the tunnel system’s depth based on satellite imagery.” Jon Gambrell, “An Iranian nuclear facility is so deep underground that US airstrikes likely couldn’t reach it,” May 23, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-natanz-uranium-enrichment-underground-project-04dae673fc937af04e62b65dd78db2e0

[18] Jon Gambrell, “See images of a secretive Israeli nuclear facility undergoing major construction,” The Associated Press, 27 February 2021. https://www.defensenews.com/global/mideast-africa/2021/02/26/see-images-of-a-secretive-israeli-nuclear-facility-undergoing-major-construction/

[19] Irenaeus, “70 years ago, Jewish Militias Hid Weapons Among Civilians in Underground Tunnels,” Daily Kos, 24 December 2023. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/23/2213515/-70-years-ago-Zionist-Militias-Hid-Weapons-Among-Civilians-in-Underground-Tunnels

[20] Ariel  David, “The True History of Ancient Jewish Underground Hiding Places in Israel,“ Haaretz newspaper, 18 Jan 2024. “New finds show that the rock-cut shelters, once linked to the Bar Kochba Revolt, originated earlier as a Jewish strategy to resist all foreign encroachment. Even some archaeologists cannot resist drawing some parallels to Hamas' tunnels in Gaza.“ The pictures in this article give a wonderful impression of the extensiveness of these tunnels.  https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2024-01-18/ty-article/the-true-history-of-ancient-jewish-underground-hiding-places-in-israel/0000018d-1c6e-dd75-addd-feef7ec00000

[21] James Rogers, “2,000-year-old desert settlement discovered in Israel, revealing ancient rebels' hidden tunnels,” Fox News, April 4, 2019. https://www.foxnews.com/science/2000-year-old-desert-settlement-discovered-in-israel-revealing-ancient-rebels-hidden-tunnels

[22] Ariel  David, “The True History of Ancient Jewish Underground Hiding Places in Israel,“ Haaretz newspaper, 18 Jan 2024.  https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2024-01-18/ty-article/the-true-history-of-ancient-jewish-underground-hiding-places-in-israel/0000018d-1c6e-dd75-addd-feef7ec00000

[23] Ariel  David, “The True History of Ancient Jewish Underground Hiding Places in Israel,“ Haaretz newspaper, 18 Jan 2024.  https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2024-01-18/ty-article/the-true-history-of-ancient-jewish-underground-hiding-places-in-israel/0000018d-1c6e-dd75-addd-feef7ec00000

[24] Peter Beaumont, “We revived an ancient tradition: Israel's new subterranean city of the dead,” The Guardian, 2 Dec 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/01/revived-ancient-tradition-catacombs-israel-subterranean-city-of-dead

[25] Christian Storm, “Tens of thousands of people are hiding in these immense Syrian tunnels and caves,” Business Insider, 11 March 2015, https://www.businessinsider.com/syrian-secret-cave-hideouts-2015-3. Note that Storm’s article says people are hiding from the Assad government, but others would suggest that they are hiding from western-backed ‘rebels,’ like Isis.

[26] Reuters, “Islamic State tunnels under al-Bab point to hard fighting ahead,” March 28, 2017. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-tunnels-idUSKBN16Y1UG/; “Russia reveals vast rebel tunnel network in northwest Syria,” The New Arab & agencies, 26 September, 2019. https://www.newarab.com/news/russia-reveals-vast-rebel-tunnel-network-northwest-syria

[27] The Chalcolithic or Copper Age is the transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. It is taken to begin around the mid-5th millennium BC, and ends with the beginning of the Bronze Age proper, in the late 4th to 3rd millennium BC, depending on the region.

[28] A detailed source on this is Jutta Häser, Ancient Tunnel Systems in Northern Jordan, Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, Berlin, https://publication.doa.gov.jo/uploads/publications/23/SHAJ_8-155-159.pdf

[29] Claudia Naeser et al., Investigating Marginality within the Framework of Socio-Ecological Interaction Models. 2021. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351055146

[30] S. Kempe and A. Al-Malabeh, “Newly discovered lava tunnels of the Al-Shaam plateau basalts, Jordan,“  https://meetings.copernicus.org/www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU05/03204/EGU05-J-03204.pdf

[31] John and Susana Pint, “The Potential for scientific projects in Saudi Arabia’s caves,” The Desert Project, 2005, updated January 20. 2013. http://www.saudicaves.com/science/

[32] John and Susana Pint, The Desert Project, 2005, updated January 20. 2013. http://www.saudicaves.com/intro.html

[33] Max Cortesi, “Al Yanfa,Tamniah, Saudi Arabia. A network of tunnels runs underneath the buildings of this ancient village.”2022.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/al-yanfa 

[34] “Jeddah unveiled,” Freddie’s lost treasures, 2023. https://medium.com/living-abroad-and-loving-it/jeddah-unveiled-3706c31d38b1

[35] “While living in Saudi Arabia in the late 1990's I learned that qanats were widely used there in the past and that the technology is still greatly appreciated and applied in modern times. Underground aqueducts would appear to be ideal for hot, desert lands where evaporation must be kept to a minimum. There is even evidence that a qanat once saved the city of Jeddah from invasion by Portuguese warships in 1516 AD. The Portuguese believed they had cut off Jeddah's water supply and waited in vain for capitulation, little suspecting that a qanat sixteen kilometers long was supplying the town with all the water it needed.” John and Susi Pint, 2005, 2013. http://www.saudicaves.com/saudi/qanat.html

[36] R. Lee Hadden, The Geology of Yemen, p.19. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA559006.pdf

[37] I have included the following for interest because it has only one reference, which I have not been able to confirm, and it is written by an Israeli scholar at a time when the Houthi forces are enemies of Israel. “Four years ago, the London-based newspaper Quraysh revealed that the Houthis were digging a 100-meter-long system of tunnels in al-Khudeida in northern Yemen. The tunnels are both defensive and offensive: for hiding and concealing weapons during bombings, and for infiltrating into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  According to the paper, "the excavation is carried out with the assistance of Iranian experts who have supervised such work in southern Lebanon since the war against Israel in 2006. The Saudis uncovered the tunnels in October 2014 and blew up the section in Saudi Arabia.” (Source: Dr. Yaron Friedman,  “Hezbollah has tunnels in Syria and Yemen too,” Ynet News, 12.09.18, https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5421172,00.html)

[38] With urbanisation and new agricultural methods and marketisation, Yemen’s population growth accelerated dramatically. “Agriculture takes the lion’s share of Yemen’s water resources, sucking up almost 90 percent. Until the early 1970s, traditional practices ensured a balance between supply and demand. Then the introduction of deep tube wells led to a drastic expansion of land under cultivation. In the period from 1970 to 2004, the irrigated area increased tenfold, from 37,000 to 407,000 hectares, 40 percent of which was supplied by deep groundwater aquifers. The thousands of Yemenis working abroad often invested their remittances in irrigation. Other incentives to expand farmland came in the form of agricultural and fuel subsidies. Farmers began growing less of the local, drought-resistant varieties of wheat and more water-intensive cash crops such as citrus and bananas.” The renovated Jadaan Cistern is built of natural stone that protects the water supply. A USAID environmental health program helped the community in the mountain village of Thula renovate a 700-year-old cistern using natural materials and traditional methods.”  R. Lee Hadden, The Geology of Yemen, p.19. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA559006.pdf

[39] “Cavers discover what lurks in Yemen's 'Well of Hell' for first time, ” The Telegraph, 23 September 2021. “Exploring an ancient sinkhole in Yemen,” https://youtu.be/V2oy8OTOKR4.  The Telegraph, 23 September 2021.

[40] Video: Ruhi Çenet, “Inside the Underground City once Housed 20,000 People: Derinkuyu, ” https://youtu.be/WZGzrBUpUps

[41] “[…] tunnels can influence conflicts in the Middle East in four ways. First, they offer an advantage to weaker groups in asymmetrical warfare by influencing their strategic choices. Second, the use of tunnels in conflict can directly determine and change even powerful states’ military strategies. Third, tunnels can become a channel through which armed groups gain political capital and legitimacy; and, on the flipside of this coin, can also pose a challenge to existing political authority as civilians and conflict actors use tunnels to circumvent the borders that may define—and confine—life on the surface. Fourth, tunnels influence conflicts in the Middle East by becoming central to the economic survival of civilians.” (Christina Steenkamp.)Christina Steenkamp, “The impact of tunnels on conflicts in the Middle East,” International Affairs 98: 2, 2022, p.706.