Maresha was one of the cities of Judea during the time of the First Temple and is mentioned among the conquests of the ancient Israelites in the Book of Joshua and later in the Books of Chronicles as one of King Rehoboam's fortifications against the Egyptian invasion by Shishak. These remnants from Maresha are from the Hellenistic period, when it was inhabited by Edomeans and Greek. John Hyrcanus the Hashmonean conquered the city in 112 BCE and laid the city to waste. Maresha never recovered. Nearby Beit Guvrin developed during the Roman and later Byzantine period as a "city of freeman". It had a large Jewish population and thrived until the Bar Kochva revolt in 132-135 CE, when it was conquered by Vespasian.

Heiko Sieger - Licensed Tour Guide - the-israel-guide.com