Ein Avdat

Ein Avdat is a narrow canyon of pale chalk cut deep into the Negev desert, where springs rise from the rock and fall in a chain of waterfalls into still green pools. In a landscape that receives almost no rain in summer, the sudden presence of water, poplar trees and nesting vultures between sheer white walls is what makes the place so arresting.

The canyon is part of Nahal Zin, the largest dry riverbed of the Negev, which runs for some 120 kilometres from the edge of Makhtesh Ramon north and then east; erosion carved this section into a gorge. Several springs feed it. At the southern end, Ein Ma'arif drops through a series of falls and pools, overlooked by the remains of a Byzantine fortress. Further north, Ein Avdat itself is a waterfall about 15 metres high that pours into a pool some 8 metres deep, and near the northern entrance is Ein Mor, named after myrrh. Euphrates poplars, tamarisks, reeds and saltbush grow along the water, maidenhair ferns cling to the damp walls, and a single large Atlantic pistachio tree stands near the entrance. Nubian ibex move along the ledges, and the cliffs are an important nesting site for griffon vultures and Egyptian vultures; Bonelli's eagles, Tristram's starlings and Arabian babblers are also found here, with freshwater crabs and green toads in the pools.

People have used the canyon for a very long time. Flint tools of the Mousterian culture found in the area are thought to be 80,000 to 90,000 years old, and the remains of a small settlement of round buildings date from the Bronze Age. The name comes from Avdat, the city that stood south of the canyon on the Nabataean Incense Route, the caravan road that carried spices and incense across the desert towards the Mediterranean; it was called Eboda after the Nabataean king Obodas I, who by tradition was buried there. In the Byzantine period monks lived in caves in the canyon walls, cutting shelves, benches, stairs and water channels into the rock and marking the walls with crosses and prayers. After the Muslim conquest the region was abandoned. A hiking trail was laid out after the founding of Kibbutz Sde Boker in 1952 and the building of Highway 40, and the canyon is now a national park of about 480 hectares.

Getting there

Ein Avdat lies just south of Kibbutz Sde Boker and Midreshet Ben-Gurion, off Highway 40 in the central Negev. The nearest city is Dimona, about 37 km away. The nearest airport within Israel is Ramon Airport (ETM) near Eilat, about 124 km away; El Arish Airport in Egypt is closer in a straight line but lies across the border.