Ayalon Institute

Museum · Secret underground bullet factory · The struggle for the state · Audio-visual presentation · Restored dining hall · 24-33 ₪

1 Fikes Street, Kibbutzim Hill, Science Park, Rehovot

A secret underground bullet factory of 1945 to 1948, hidden beneath a kibbutz laundry on Kibbutzim Hill in Rehovot, beside the Science Park

Beside the Science Park in Rehovot, on Kibbutzim Hill, the Ayalon Institute tells, in its site's words, how an underground factory made 9 mm bullets for the Sten gun, the personal weapon of the Palmach fighters, right under the noses of the British. The factory lay eight metres below ground and was the size of a tennis court; members of the Scouts group Tzofim Aleph and others who joined them, 45 young men and women in all, ran it in complete secrecy from 1945 to 1948 and made more than four million rounds. Guided tours find the secret entrance hidden inside an innocent laundry, go down into the factory, where the ammunition machines still work, and tell the stories of the place; children watch an audio-visual presentation and climb down spiral stairs into the factory. The site also has a restored dining hall, halls for events of up to 400 people and a eucalyptus grove with picnic tables, and it is one of the sites of the Council for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel.