Sde Boker & Mitzpe Ramon - In The Heart Of The Negev

Graves of David and Paula Ben-Gurion in Sde Boker

David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, proclaimed that "The future of Israel lies in the Negev."  "On what is accomplished in the Negev," he maintained, "Israel will stand or fall."    

The Negev comprises about 60% of Israel's land, but houses less than 10% of its population.  As Israel's population continues to swell - and as the center of the country becomes increasingly overcrowded, expensive and congested - the obvious questions arise of where Israelis are going to live and how they are going to feed themselves.  To some, the barren moonscape of the Negev may seem like an inhospitable place to establish one's future.  But to Ben-Gurion, the Negev was a place of tremendous potential that offered Israel a place to live, grow, and prosper.  Ben-Gurion's vision has not yet been fully realized, but his desert hometown of Sde Boker today houses a number of forward-thinking scientific institutions focused on sustainable energy, development and agriculture - including the Zuckerberg Institute of Water Research, the Institute for Desert Research, and the National Solar Energy Centre.  Sde Boker is home to a number of innovative projects, such as desalination; using brackish water (which is plentiful in the Negev) for agriculture, viniculture and aquaculture; and making solar energy cheaper and more powerful.

Our "eco-hut"

For adventurous travelers, the area around Sde Boker and nearby Mitzpe Ramon offers great hiking opportunities, panoramic vistas, unique accommodations, and plenty of history (click here to read our post on the ancient Nabataean cities of Avdat, Mamshit and Shivta).  We stayed at the Desert Ecolodge in Mitzpe Ramon, where rustic "eco-huts" are built out of mud, rock and recycled materials.  The warm communal vibe here is very inviting and we befriended a large group of friendly Israeli hiking enthusiasts (many originally from the U.S. or the U.K.) who fed us soup and snacks, entertained us with song and dance, and played with and read to our kids.

It was yet one more place of accommodation in Israel where the view from our window was a highlight of our visit.  From the front yard of our hut, we had a fantastic view of the "Maktesh Ramon," a unique geological phenomenon caused by erosion, which results in a kind of vast crater in the Earth's surface.  (Technically, it's actually not a crater, which is caused by the impact of a meteorite.)  The lodge is only a few hundred feet from the crater's rim, which drops precipitously into a sea of black, brown, gray and red rock and sand.  Sunrise over the Maktesh was especially beautiful.  The views are made all the more dramatic by a series of modern sculptures scattered along the rim.  For some reason, I became fixated on one particular sculpture and the layered landscape behind it, at different times of the day. 

Sunrise over the Maktesh

Sunrise shot #2

Sunrise shot #3

My favorite sculpture, just before sunrise

Just after sunrise

Mid-morning

Afternoon

At sunrise again, the next day

Here's another sculpture at sunrise

Broad view of the Maktesh

More from the Maktesh

A neighboring hut in our ecolodge

We didn't really get to experience the town of Mitzpe Ramon as much as we would have liked, but we did enjoy a quick slice at Pizza Domino (no relation thankfully to Domino's Pizza) and we saw a traditionally dressed Bedouin woman shopping at the supermarket.

In Sde Boker, we visited the site of Ben-Gurion's grave (pictured at the top of this post), which offers sweeping views of the parched landscape.  As with many places in the desert, the changes in light throughout the day offer multiple perspectives from the same vantage point.  We also visited the Ein Avdat National Park, which consists of a steep desert canyon with flowing freshwater, a rarity in the Negev.  Ibexes are everywhere in Sde Boker - they used to live down in the canyons but apparently they figured out that where there are humans, there's food.  We capped our day with a lovely, scenic picnic, marred only by the brazen theft of our sliced turkey by a quick and daring cat.  Ah, the perils of life on the road...

Desert scenery in Sde Boker (and more shots below)

A cat ate his turkey, but he's still happy

Here come the pictures of the ibexes

Bottom of the canyon at Ein Avdat National Park

Ein Avdat National Park

Reflection in Ein Avdat National Park

View on the hike up to the top of the canyon, Ein Avdat National Park

Talia's having fun!

We made it to the top!

We had a great time traveling through the Negev for a couple of days, but of course we cannot really begin to know either its potential or its problems.  There are innovative new energy projects, but there are also communities that lack adequate electricity.  There are cutting-edge agricultural programs, but there are also many Bedouins who suffer from poverty and hunger.  There are leading scientific institutions, but there are also plenty of people who do not have access to a good education.  There's a surplus of vacant land, but we drove past a number of Bedouin villages that looked like shanty towns.

The Negev has a long way to go to fulfill Ben-Gurion's dream.  With all the pressures that Israel faces - from a rapidly growing populace, increased overcrowding and congestion, a shortage of water supplies, and the prospect of giving up land in the West Bank and the North as part of any future peace deal - I'm certainly curious to know what the Negev will look like a quarter century from now.