Ein Avdat and the Negev Desert

Despite the blazing sun and searing heat, our intrepid group decided to venture out into the unforgiving Negev Desert of southern Israel for a day of adventure (and minor heat exhaustion). One of our main stops was at Ein Avdat National Park.

Ein Avdat is canyon hidden away in the desert with some pretty spectacular sights to see. Walking in to the canyon, the first thing you notice is how dry and desolate things seem. Steep chalk limestone walls rise up on either side, which narrow as you travel further in to the canyon. Depressions and caves of differing sizes can be seen high up on the cliffs due to how easily the soft limestone weathers over time.

There is a fair bit of vegetation, however, all of which is extremely well adapted to live with very little water. The ground in this area is very salty, and some of the plants deal with this problem by secreting excess salts on to the outside of their leaves. You can easily notice this by rubbing your fingers on the leaves and tasting the gritty substance that comes off. This adaptation also helps some of the larger plants compete for habitat, as the morning dew helps deposit this salt around its base, keeping the area free of competing plants.

This lone large tree is a pistachio tree, the seed of which must have blown in from far away a long time ago. While this plant cannot normally survive in the desert of Israel, this individual is thriving. This canyon is a special place where water flows far more often, due to the many natural springs that emanate from the canyon walls further in, as we will see below. 

Life here just seems to find a way - this little guy was hanging out underneath the pistachio tree, and joined us for a quick water break in the shade.

Continuing in to the canyon, we finally come upon flowing water! This is actually a pretty amazing sight, as the Negev desert as a whole is extremely dry. These natural springs serve as an oasis for both the natural biology and for human populations, with tribes of ancient nomadic people using the water to survive for thousands of years.

Eventually we came to a big open pool with a waterfall at the end. We didn’t see any fish living in the water, but it harbored a large amount of algal material, and even a few little crabs. A family of doves also found refuge in the shade along the travertine near the waterfall.

The area has also been used by Catholic monks during certain periods of time, who took refuge in the remote caves in order to study their faith away from distractions, while still having access to life giving water.

Speaking of life giving water, nearby the canyon, and just outside the Ein Avdat National Park, we visited an ancient Nabataean water cistern that was carved into the ground. The Nabataean people lived in this area over 2000 years ago, loosely controlling a long trading route connected by these oases and water cisterns.

Cisterns like these were designed to gently collect water that flowed along nearby drainage routes during large, but infrequent, storms. Small diversions were built in to these drainages in such a way as to collect drinking water for storage without collecting large amounts of sediment. These diversions were built to be highly discrete, so that people other than the Nabataeans would never notice them. When threatened by foreign armies who sought to conquer them, the Nabataeans could shelter themselves in the desert where no other people could survive, largely due to these ingenious secret water cisterns.