How does the Negev differ from the Judean Desert? Well, most notable are the cultural differences. Israel uses about 80% (or is it 90%?) of the Negev Desert for military training purposes. What this means is that, except on weekends and holidays, most of the dirt tracks are off-limits to bicycle tourers. Thankfully Passover’s a long holiday so I was able to get into some areas that would normally be difficult (life-threatening?) to access. After the holiday I got used to seeing soldiers practising tank manoeuvres and going to sleep to the periodic staccato blasts of machine gun fire.
The other cultural difference is the Bedouins or rather lack thereof in the Negev. Even though the Negev seems drier than the Judean Desert, the Bedouin used to herd their camels and goats in the Negev, but Israel has created national parks. Apparently the military can use these areas for training, but the Bedouin aren’t allowed to stay. The heavy military presence makes protesting this land grab a rather dangerous game.
Of interest to most tourists to the Negev are the makhtesh, usually translated into English as “crater” though these have nothing to do meteors or volcanoes. They’re kind of like what we might call box canyons in the US or perhaps similar to the mysterious Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands NP.
The Small Crater (Ha-Makhtesh Ha-Katan) looks rather crater-like.
I got pinned down one night by a sandstorm in the Big Crater (Ha-Makhtesh Ha-Gadol) near an area called Colored Sands.
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