The Negev (Hebrew: נֶגֶב, Tiberian vocalization: Néḡeḇ) is the desert region of southern Israel. Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct (yet very well documented Oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was A desert is a Landscape or region that receives very little precipitation. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. The indigenous Bedouin citizens of the region refer to the desert as an-Naqab (Arabic: النقب). The Negev (נֶגֶב Tiberian vocalization: Néḡeḇ) is the Desert region of southern Israel. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'. In the Bible the word Negev is also used for the direction 'south'.
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Geography
The Negev covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km² (4,700 sq mi) or at least 55% of the country's land area. It forms an inverted triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula, and whose eastern border is the Arabah valley. The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai ( Coptic: sina; Egyptian Arabic: sina سينا Arabic, sina'a سيناء The Arabah (הָעֲרָבָה Tiberian: HāʻĂrāḇā وادي عربة Wādī ʻAraba) is a section of the Great The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features. Among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim, which are unique to the region; Makhtesh Ramon, Makhtesh Gadol and Makhtesh Katan. A makhtesh (מכתש plural מכתשים - "makhteshim" is a geological landform regarded to be unique to the Negev desert of Israel and the Makhtesh Ramon (מכתש רמון litRamon Crater is a spectacular geological feature of Israel's Negev Desert. Makhtesh Gadol (המכתש הגדול lit The Big Crater) is a Makhtesh, a geological erosional landform of Israel's Negev Makhtesh Katan (המכתש הקטן lit The Small Crater) is a Makhtesh, a geological erosional landform of Israel's Negev
The Negev can be split into five different ecological regions: northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau and the Arabah Valley. The northern Negev, or Mediterranean zone receives 300 mm of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm of rain per year, with light and partially sandy soils. Sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres here. Home to the city of Beersheba, the central Negev has an annual precipitation of 200 mm and is characterized by impervious soil, allowing minimum penetration of water with greater soil erosion and water runoff. Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva, بئر السبع, Birüssebi is the largest City in the Negev desert of southern The high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev (Hebrew: רמת הנגב, The Negev Heights) stands between 370 metre and 520 metre above sea level with extreme temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm of rain per year, with inferior and partially salty soils. The Arabah Valley along the Jordanian border stretches 180 km from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Dead Sea (יָם הַמֶּלַח, "Sea of Salt"البَحْر المَيّت, "Dead Sea" is a salt lake between The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm of rain annually, the Arava has inferior soils in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives.
Geology
The Negev is a rocky desert. A desert is a Landscape or region that receives very little precipitation. It is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis (dry riverbeds that bloom briefly after rain) and deep craters. Wadi (وادي) (also Vadi) is traditionally a valley In some cases it can refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain The area actually was once the floor of a primordial sea, and a sprinkling of marine snail shells still covers the earth.
The Ramat Hovav toxic waste facility was planted in the area of Beer Sheva and Wadi el-Na'am in 1979 because the area was perceived as invulnerable to leakage; However within a decade, cracks were found in the rock beneath Ramat Hovav. Ramat Hovav (רמת חובב is Israel 's main hazardous waste disposal facility as well as an industrial zone built in the Negev Desert in 1979 Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva, بئر السبع, Birüssebi is the largest City in the Negev desert of southern Wadi al-Na'am is an unrecognized village in the Negev/Naqab Desert in Southern Israel [1] From its inception, the facility developed a history of accidents and closures; in the past regional councils regularly discovered that the evaporation pools of Ramat Hovav's Machteshim chemical factory had overflowed, or that waste was leaking from drainage pipes into their reservoir. Ramat Hovav (רמת חובב is Israel 's main hazardous waste disposal facility as well as an industrial zone built in the Negev Desert in 1979 Nearly ten years after its establishment, outcrops of the chalk under Ramat Hovav showed fractures potentially leading to serious soil and groundwater contamination in the future. [2]
Climate
The whole Negev region is incredibly arid, receiving very little rain due to its location to the east of the Sahara (as opposed to the Mediterranean which lies to the west of Israel), and extreme temperatures due to its location 31 degrees north. The Sahara (الصحراء الكبرى aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-kubra, "The Great Desert" is the world's largest hot Desert and the world's second largest
The average rainfall total from June through October is zero. [1]
| Average climate of Beersheba[1] | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average maximum temperature (°C) | 17 | 17 | 20 | 26 | 29 | 31 | 33 | 33 | 31 | 28 | 24 | 18 |
| Average minimum temperature (°C) | 7 | 7 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 17 | 12 | 8 |
Ancient History
Nomadic life in the Negev dates back at least 4,000 years [2] and perhaps as much as 7,000 years. Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva, بئر السبع, Birüssebi is the largest City in the Negev desert of southern [3] The first urbanized settlements were established by a combination of Canaanite, Amalekite, and Edomite groups circa 2000 BCE. Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. According to the Book of Genesis and 1 Chronicles, Amalek ( Arabic, عماليق, was the son of Eliphaz and the grandson of [2] Pharaonic Egypt is credited with introducing copper mining and smelting in both the Negev and the Sinai between 1400 and 1300 BCE. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai ( Coptic: sina; Egyptian Arabic: sina سينا Arabic, sina'a سيناء [2] [4]
In the 9th century BCE, development and expansion of mining in both the Negev and Edom (modern Jordan) coincided with the rise of the Assyrian Empire. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture [5] Beersheba was the region's capital and a center for trade in the 8th century BCE. Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva, بئر السبع, Birüssebi is the largest City in the Negev desert of southern [5] Small settlements of Jews in the areas around the capital and later further afield were existent between 1020 and 928 BCE. [5]
The 4th century BCE arrival of the Nabateans resulted in the development of irrigation systems that supported at least five new urban centers: Avdat, Mamshit, Shivta, Halutza (or Elusa), and Nitzana. The Nabataeans ( Arabic: الأنباط, Al-Anbāṭ) were an ancient Semitic people Arabs of southern Jordan, Canaan Avdat01JPG|thumb|Avdat architecture ("The Southern Gate"|200px|right]]Avdat view to the Negev Mamshit (ממשית is the Nabataean city of Memphis. In the Nabataean period Mamshit was important because it sat on Incense Road, on the route from Shivta or Sobota (שבטה is an Archaeological site in the Negev Desert of Israel, east to Nitzana. Haluza, also known as Halasa and Elusa, is a city in the Negev that was once part of the Nabataean Incense Route. Disambiguation For the company see Electronics Line USA. For the Gaulish Bishopric, see Eauze. [5] The Nabateans controlled the trade and spice route between their capital Petra and the Gazan seaports. Petra (from "petra" rock in Greek; Arabic: البتراء Al-Batrāʾ) is an archaeological site in the Arabah Nabatean currency, as well as the remains of red and orange potsherds identified as a trademark of their civilization have been found along the route, remnants of which are also still visible. In Archaeology, a sherd is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of Pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments [5]
Nabatean control of southern Palestine ended when the Roman empire annexed their lands in 106 AD. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial [5] The population, largely made up of Arabian nomads and Nabateans, remained largely tribal and independent of Roman rule, with an animist belief system. [5]
Byzantine rule in the 4th century AD introduced Christianity to the population. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings [5] Agricultural-based cities were established and the population grew exponentially. [5]
The arrival of Muslim forces in the 7th century AD was accepted with relative ease by the population, due to their shared Arab background, and Islam was easily adopted by most as well. A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. [5] Upon Islamic conquest, permanent agricultural sites were established and the Ummayads built hundred of farms and systematic terracing of wadis. Wadi (وادي) (also Vadi) is traditionally a valley In some cases it can refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain The efforts, in part were made to settle the semi-nomadic Arab tribes of the Naqab region. [6]
Bedouin, the longest continuous inhabitants
- (See section on Changing Ways of Life)
Nomadic tribes ruled the Negev largely independently and with a relative lack of interference for the next thousand years. The Bedouin, (from the Arabic (ar بدوي pl badū) are a desert-dwelling Arab Nomadic pastoralist, or previously [5] What is known of this time is largely derived from oral histories and folk tales of tribes from the Wadi Musa and Petra areas in present-day Jordan[7]
The Bedouins of the Negev historically survived chiefly on sheep and goat husbandry. Wadi Musa, ("وادي موسى" in Arabic translated as "Valley of Moses " is the name of a town located in the Aqaba Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (الأردنّ al-Urdunn) is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly. The Bedouin in years past established few permanent settlements, although some were built, leaving behind remnants of stone houses called 'baika. ' [3] Late in the rule of the Ottoman Empire, an administrative center for southern Palestine was established in Beersheba and schools and a railway station were built. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish [7] The authority of the tribal chiefs over the region was recognized by the Ottomans. [7]
The tribal culture and way of life has changed dramatically recently, and today hardly any Bedouin citizens of Israel are nomadic. [8]
Bedouin as nomads, Bedouin as citizens
Between 1948 and 1966, the new State of Israel imposed a military administration over Arabs of the region and designated 85% of the Negev "State Land. " All Bedouin habitation on this newly-declared State Land was retroactively termed illegal and "unrecognized. " Now that Negev lands the Bedouin had inhabited upwards of 500 years was designated State Land, the Bedouin were no longer able to fully engage in their sole means of self-subsistence – agriculture and grazing. The government then forcibly concentrated these Bedouin tribes into the Siyag triangle of Beer Sheba, Arad and Dimona [3]. Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva, بئر السبع, Birüssebi is the largest City in the Negev desert of southern Dimona (דִּימוֹנָה is an Israeli city in the Negev desert to the south of Beersheba and west of the Dead Sea above the Today, at least 75,000 citizens live in 40 unrecognized villages.
In order to reinforce the invisible Siyag fence, the State employed a reining mechanism, the Black Goat Law of 1950. The Black Goat Law curbed grazing so as to prevent land erosion by prohibiting the grazing of goats outside one's recognized land holdings. Since few Bedouin territorial claims were recognized, most grazing was thereby rendered illegal. (Both Ottoman and British land registration processes failed to reach into the Negev region. Most Bedouin who had the option, preferred not to register their lands as this would mean being taxed. ) Those whose land claims were recognized found it almost impossible to keep their goats within the periphery of their newly limited range, and into the 1970’s and ‘80’s, only a small portion of the Bedouin were able to continue to graze their goats. Instead of migrating with their goats in search of pasture, the majority of the Bedouin migrated in search of wage-labor. [4]
In 1979 Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon declared a 1,500 square kilometer area in the Negev, a protected nature reserve, rendering a major portion of the Negev almost entirely out of bounds for Bedouin herders. In conjunction, he established the 'Green Patrol,' [5] the ‘environmental paramilitary unit’ with the mission of fighting Bedouin ‘infiltration’ into national Israeli land by preventing Bedouin from creating facts on the land and grazing their animals. During Sharon’s tenure as Minister of Agriculture (1977-1981), the Green Patrol removed 900 Bedouin encampments and cut goat herds by more than 1/3. [6] Today the black goat is nearly extinct, and Bedouin in Israel do not have enough access to black goat hair to weave tents. Denied access to their former sources of sustenance, severed from the possibility of access to water, electricity, roads, education, and health care in the unrecognized villages, and trusting in government promises that they would receive services if they moved, in the 1970's and 80's, tens of thousands of Bedouin resettled in 7 legal towns constructed by the government. (Falah, Ghazi. “The Spatial Pattern of Bedouin Sedentarization in Israel,” GeoJournal, 1985 Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 361-368. ) However, the towns lacked any business districts and the urban townships have long been rife with the social breakdown resulting from near-total joblessness, crime and drugs. [7]
The Negev Today
Today, the Negev is home to some 379,000 Jews and some 175,000 Bedouin. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ The Bedouin, (from the Arabic (ar بدوي pl badū) are a desert-dwelling Arab Nomadic pastoralist, or previously At least 80,000 Bedouin citizens live in unrecognized villages under threat of demolition; these citizens are subject to removal at any time via the Removal of Intruders Law. [8]
The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע Be'er Sheva, بئر السبع, Birüssebi is the largest City in the Negev desert of southern 185,000), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city of Eilat. The Gulf of Aqaba ( Arabic: خليج العقبة transliterated: Khalyj al-'Aqabah in Israel known as the Gulf of Eilat ( Hebrew A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status Eilat (Hebrew אילת should not be confused with the nearby kibbutz of Eilot (Hebrew אילות It contains several development towns include Dimona, Arad, Mitzpe Ramon, as well as a number of small Bedouin cities, including Rahat and Tel as-Sabi. Development town (עיירת פיתוח Ayarat Pitu'ah) is a term used to refer to the new settlements that were built in Israel during the 1950s in order to expand Dimona (דִּימוֹנָה is an Israeli city in the Negev desert to the south of Beersheba and west of the Dead Sea above the Arad (עֲרָד عراض is a city in the South District of Israel, on the border of the Negev and Judean Deserts Located west of the Mitzpe Ramon (מִצְפֵּה רָמוֹן lit Ramon Lookout) is a town in the Negev Desert of southern Israel. The Bedouin, (from the Arabic (ar بدوي pl badū) are a desert-dwelling Arab Nomadic pastoralist, or previously Rahat (רַהַט رهط is a city in the South District of Israel. Tel Sheva redirects here For the UNESCO World Heritage Site see Tel Be'er Sheva Tel as-Sabi or Tel Sheva (تل السبع תֵּל There are also several kibbutzim, including Revivim and Sde Boker; the latter became the home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, after his retirement from politics. A kibbutz ( Hebrew: קיבוץ קִבּוּץ lit "gathering clustering" plural kibbutzim) is a collective community in Revivim (רְבִיבִים is a Kibbutz in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Sde Boker (שְׂדֵה בּוֹקֵר lit Cowboy's Field) is a Kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and is the most powerful political officer in Israel (the President of Israel being a titular figurehead
The desert is home to the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, whose faculties include the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, both located on the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus adjacent to Sde Boker. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (אוניברסיטת בן גוריון בנגב was founded in 1969, in Beersheba, Israel. The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research is part of the Ben-Gurion University, and is located in the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus in the centre of the The Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies is a faculty of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and part of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Midreshet Ben-Gurion (מדרשת בן-גוריון also known as Midreshet Sde Boker, is a communal settlement in southern Israel. Sde Boker (שְׂדֵה בּוֹקֵר lit Cowboy's Field) is a Kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel.
85% of the Negev is used by the Israel Defense Forces for training purposes. [9]. In the remaining portion of the Negev available for civilian purposes, a large number of citizens live together in close proximity to a range of types of hazardous infrastructure, which includes a nuclear reactor, 22 agro and petrochemical factories, an oil terminal, closed military zones, quarries, a toxic waste incinerator Ramat Hovav, cell towers, a power plant, several airports, a prison, and 2 rivers of open sewage. Ramat Hovav (רמת חובב is Israel 's main hazardous waste disposal facility as well as an industrial zone built in the Negev Desert in 1979 [10]
See also
References
- ^ a b Beersheba, ISR Weather. Blueprint Negev is a $600 million project of the Quasi-governmental Jewish National Fund (JNF to develop the Negev region of Israel through MSN. Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 41 - After a night of negotiation Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate
- ^ a b c Mariam Shahin. Palestine: A Guide. (2005) Interlink Books. ISBN:156656557
- ^ a b Israel Finkelstein; Avi Perevolotsky (Aug. , 1990). "Processes of Sedentarization and Nomadization in the History of Sinai and the Negev". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (279): 67-88.
- ^ Juan Manuel Tebes (2007) Centro y periferia en el mundo antiguo. El Negev y sus interacciones con Egipto, Asiria, y el Levante en la Edad del Hierro (1200-586 a.C.) CEHAO Monograph Series Vol. 1. Buenos Aires.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Mariam Shahin. Palestine:A Guide. (2005) Interlink Books. ISBN:156656557
- ^ Robert Schick (6 1998). "Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine: Palestine in the Early Islamic Period: Luxuriant Legacy". Near Eastern Archaeology 61 (2): 74-1008.
- ^ a b c Mariam Shahin. Palestine:A Guide. (2005) Interlink Books. ISBN:156656557
- ^ Kurt Goering (Autumn, 1979). "Israel and the Bedouin of the Negev". Journal of Palestine Studies 9 (1): 3-20.
External links
- Negev Wikitravel
- Israel's Negev Information Site
- Israel's Negev Desert
- About the Bedouin in unrecognized villages
- About changes in Bedouin life
- About Negev environmental issues
- Negev Desert Socio-Environmental Timeline
This article is about the southern region of Israel. For the light machine gun see IMI Negev. The Negev is an Israeli 556 mm Light machine gun, developed by Israel Military Industries Ltd
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