Negev

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the light machine gun see IMI Negev.

Rock face in the Negev Desert near Beersheba on the way to Eilat.

Ruins in the Negev desert.

View of the resort city, Eilat from the Negev.

The Negev (Hebrew: נֶגֶב‎, Tiberian vocalization: Néḡeḇ; Arabic: النقب‎, an-Naqab) is the desert region of southern Israel which makes up the majority of Israel's official Southern District. The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'. In the Bible the word 'Negev' is also used for the direction 'south'.

1 Geography
2 Geology
3 Climate
4 The Negev Today
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Geography

The Negev covers over some 6,700 square miles (13,000 square kilometers) or 69% of Israel. It forms an inverted triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula, and whose eastern border is the Wadi Arabah.

The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features. Among the latter are three enormous, craterlike erosion cirques or makhteshim, which are unique to the region: the Ramon Crater, haMakhtesh haGadol ("The Large Makhtesh"), and haMakhtesh haKatan ("The Small Makhtesh").

The Negev can be split into five different ecological regions:

[edit] The Northern Negev

The Norther Negev, or Mediterranean Zone receives twelve inches of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils.

[edit] The Western Negev

The Western Negev receives ten inches of rain per year, with light and partially sandy soils. Sand dunes can reach heights of up to 90 feet here.

[edit] The Central Negev

Home to the city of Beersheba, the Central Negev has an annual precipitation of 8 inches and is characterized by impervious soil, allowing minimum penetration of water with greater soil erosion and water runoff.

[edit] The High Plateau

The high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev (Hebrew: רמת הנגב‎, The Negev Heights) stands between 370 metre and 520 metre above sea level with extreme temperatures in summer and winter. The area has gets four inches of rain per year, with inferior and partially salty soils.

[edit] The Arava Valley

The Arava Valley along the Jordanian border stretches 180 km from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Arava Valley is very arid with barely 2 inches of rain annually, the Arava has inferior soils in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives.

[edit] Geology

Contrary to the usual view of a "desert," the Negev is not covered with sand. Rather, it is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis (dry riverbeds that bloom briefly after rain) and deep craters. The area actually was once the floor of a primordial sea, and a sprinkling of marine snail shells still covers the earth here. Aside from the natural wonders, the Negev plays host to a great number of ancient sites, displaying the rich history of this crossroads of trade between Asia, Africa, and Europe.

[edit] Climate

The whole Negev region is incredibly arid, receiving very little rain due to its location to the East of the Sahara (as oppose to the Mediterranean which lies to the West of most of Israel), and extreme temperatures due to its location 31 degrees North.

[edit] The Negev Today

Today, the Negev is home to some 379,000 Jews and some 175,000 Bedouins. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. around 200,000), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Eilat and the resort city of Eilat. Other towns include Dimona, Arad, Mitzpe Ramon as well as a number of small Bedouin towns, including Rahat and Tel Sheva. There are also several kibbutz settlements, including Revivim and Sde Boker; the latter was founded by Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion and became his home after his retirement from politics.