Kalabera Cave is an underground chamber in

Kalabera Kalabera is a small village on the northern side of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. The village is best known for Kalabera Cave, that is a common tourist stop. The entry room stands close to 60 feet high, and drops off to a seemingly bottoml ...

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

. There is a trail, ramp at the cave's entrance, pictographic and petroglyph interpretive panels, prayer or offering area, replica latte huts, and landscaping in the surrounding area. The site was used as a prehistoric burial site. There are more than forty-five prehistoric

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s and rock engravings in the cave, measuring between 5 and 10 inches in size. Most of the engravings portray headless human figures. During the

Battle of Saipan The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June to 9 July 1944 as part of Operation Forager. It has been referred to as the "Pacific D-Day" with th ...

, civilians and combatants hid in the cave and it served as a field hospital. Years after the war, ordnance, human belongings, and skeletons were still retrieved 30 to 50 feet from the cave's entrance.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Saipan Northern Mariana Islands