A YOUNG man who spent half a century carving a cave in the best house is being evicted.
Nissim Kahlon, 77, built a spectacular house full of canals, murals, and winding stairs from a sandy beach in Israel.
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But the country’s Defense Ministry said Mr Kahlon’s design was “illegal” – putting the Herzliya beach, north of Tel Aviv, at risk.
The former housekeeper, who says he was living in a tent on the beach in 1973 when he started working in the cave, has said he would rather die than leave his house that he never expected.
Kahlon said AP news: “I’m not leaving here, I’m ready to be buried here.”
“I have nowhere to go, I have no other home.”
For fifty years, Mr. Kahlon has created a complex, maze-like painting – which curious passers-by now try to come and see.
He says that the project started when he ran away to the sea to avoid what he had planned marriageand one day he began to dig a hole in the rocks by the sea.
But the small ones became a very respectable house, with tiled floors, curved stairs, water pipes, telephone line, and electric lights.
And the clever Mr. Kahlon also used recycled materials to design the house – with tiles carved from waste in Tel Aviv, as well as wood, ceramic and stone.
Mr. Kahlon said: “There is no waste here, only things, that is the mind. Everything is useful, there is no waste.”
This mysterious cave is known locally as “Hermit House”, according to Atlas Obscura – and the disgusted Mr Kahlon believes he deserves more respect from the government.
Talking with New Lines Magazinethe architect said: “This house is a museum. They should give me a prize.”
But Israeli officials insisted they should go – accusing the cave’s creator of “severe damage to the rock”, “putting people at risk” and limiting access to the beach “for people to pass through”.
Near the cave is an abandoned site, once home to the Israeli Military Industries factory.
The facility used to manufacture explosives – but was abandoned nearly 30 years ago after a 1992 explosion killed two workers and shook windows far from Tel Aviv.
Last month, another explosion blasted a huge crater in the sandy soil near Mr Kahlon’s cave – and now officials are hoping to inspect the contaminated site.
They offer Kahlon a place to stay – but she refuses to go.
Mr Kahlon, who admits he has never received a building permit, insists he has the right to live as local authorities connected him to the electricity grid years ago.
The impending deportation has now been postponed until the end of this month to give him time to appeal.
If you would like to visit another cave near our home, check it out this grotto UK decorated with over 10,000 crystals.
When This other cave also caused chaos – but it doesn’t run away from the beach.
And this man built another unexpected place – igloo in his garden.
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