Hiking the Negev

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On Wednesday March 23rd I hiked a crater...the biggest crater on land. It's name is Mitzpe Ramon. We came across rocks black as coal and red as fire. I think the red rocks had iron in them. We even saw purple rocks. There was interesting flora and fauna. I saw this plant that looked like spiky grapes and these birds that looked like quails. It was amazing to see that anything could live or grow in land so rocky and dry. We saw more ibex...only these ibex were very social, and were eating plastic from a garbage can. Its odd how some parts of Israel are green and tropical, and other parts look like mars.
Then on Saturday we climbed at Ein Avdat National Park. It was rocky and steep - the kind of thing an ibex would climb. At the top, was a beautiful view of the canyon. It had a lovely curved shape and a unique color. Hiking down was a little tricky, because we slid a lot. When we reached the very bottom, Emily found a place with sparkly white crystals. We collected a few, and left the rest of the treasures for other hikers to find.
We we went back the next day to see the ancient Nebatean ruins of the city of Avdat, where they filmed the movie Jesus Christ Superstar. We saw an ancient storage room where people would save water and food. We also saw a burial tomb where they would place roman soldiers who died. (The Romans captured the city). We saw people restoring the historical site by fixing little cracks and such. We even saw a tiny lizard who looked like a chameleon. The Nabateans founded the city of Avdat. They started by trading herbs, spices, and incense. Over time, they actually became wealthy and began building cities along what was called The Spice Route. It is amazing how they came up with ways to capture and store water in order to have a thriving city in the middle of the desert!

Thanks for the last questoins from my class. I will get to that in my next blog.

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Photos

Me!
IN the ruins of Avdat.

Me and Emily
At the Nature Park

Sign on the road
We see these signs quite often.

More sculptures
From Avdat

The Burial Cave
This was built ny the Romans

Another Lizard
We saw this guy on our way to the burial caves

Roman Viilla
A very rich person once lived here.

View from city
Avdat is built on the top of a hill so they could have protection and a good view to see people coming.

Avdat
This was a big canyon carved out from a river.

Cool Head!
Sculpture on the ridge of the crater

Comments

[Cathy A]

I tried to read the Greek on the picture of Ein Avdat. It is ancient Greek and I could sound out but have no idea what the words say. You have some very nice pictures.

[Sally]

Hi, Abby! I am really enjoying reading your blog and seeing the pictures of so many historical and interesting places in Israel. Thank you for taking the time to share them.