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 () is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated Territories of the United States, territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 estimates by the United States Cens ...

. 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 an amphibious assault launched by the United States against the Empire of Japan during the Pacific War, Pacific campaign of World War II between 15 June and 9 July 1944. The initial invasion triggered the Battle of the ...

, 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 Northern Mariana Islands