Negev & the Nabateans

The ancient trade route linking India, the Arabian Peninsula and the Mediterranean coast overflowed with spices, fragrant resins, precious fabrics and other refined goods of the Orient. That route was controlled by no one but the Nabateans — a nomadic people whose wealth and culture flourished in a desert kingdom with its capital at Petra.

At the height of their power the Nabateans built, besides Petra, cities such as Avdat, Mamshit and Shivta, whose ruins still show the immense wealth of that kingdom. Since 2005 these Negev cities have been on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The Negev covers the largest part of Israel, and its dramatic landscape was carved by harsh winds and flash floods millions of years ago. Even so, kibbutzim and moshavim flourish here alongside Bedouin communities — this is the land behind the phrase about making the desert bloom.

The desert also offers a window into the geological history of the planet through an erosion feature called a makhtesh, of which the Negev has several. The largest, Makhtesh Ramon, is forty kilometres long, and looking into it will take your breath away.

What we will see

• Avdat — A Nabatean city on the Incense Route, UNESCO listed. The best preserved of the five.
• Makhtesh Ramon — A forty-kilometre erosion crater — the largest formation of its kind in the world.
• Ein Avdat — A canyon with waterfalls and pools in the middle of the desert. A short but steep hike.
• Shivta — An abandoned Byzantine-Nabatean city without walls, UNESCO listed.
• Mamshit — The smallest but best preserved Nabatean town, UNESCO listed.
• Sde Boker — The kibbutz where David Ben-Gurion retired. His grave overlooks the Zin canyon.
• Beersheba — Abraham's well and the capital of the Negev. The Bedouin market is held on Thursdays.