Ein Avdat ( he, עין עבדת) or Ein Ovdat is a

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

in the

Negev Desert The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southe ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, south of

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Sde Boker Sde Boker ( he, שְׂדֵה בּוֹקֵר, lit. ''Herding Field'') is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat ...

. Archaeological evidence shows that Ein Avdat was inhabited by

Nabateans The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic language, Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabian Pe ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s. Numerous springs at the southern opening of the canyon empty into deep pools in a series of

waterfalls A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

. The water emerges from the rock layers with salt-tolerant plants like ''

Poplar trees ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...

'' and ''

Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and w ...

es'' growing nearby.

Etymology

''Ein'' is

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

for spring or water source. ''Avdat'' derives from the nearby city of Avdat that stood south of the canyon. Avdat was named after the

Nabataean The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Lev ...

King

Obodas I Obodas I (Nabataean Aramaic: ''ʿŌbōdaṯ''; grc, Ὀβόδας) was king of the Nabataeans from 96 BC to 85 BC. After his death, Obodas was worshiped as a deity. Life Obodas was the successor of Aretas II, from whom he inherited the war with ...

who, according to tradition, was buried there.

History

Prehistoric era

Habitation during the

prehistoric era Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

is attested to by numerous

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

artifacts found in the area believed to be 80,000–90,000 years old and part of

Mousterian culture The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the latt ...

. The flint in the

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial ...

s nearby was utilized for arrows and points.

Ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There are ...

egg shells and

onager The onager (; ''Equus hemionus'' ), A new species called the kiang (''E. kiang''), a Tibetan relative, was previously considered to be a subspecies of the onager as ''E. hemionus kiang'', but recent molecular studies indicate it to be a distinct ...

bones shed light on the fauna of the time. Man-made knives and other hand held implements date from the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

and

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

periods. Remains of a small settlement consisting of several round structures dates from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

Antiquity

During the

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...

Avdat became a station along the Nabatean

Incense Route The Incense Trade Route was an ancient network of major land and sea trading routes linking the Mediterranean world with eastern and southern sources of incense, spices and other luxury goods, stretching from Mediterranean ports across the Levant ...

, an ancient trading route from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

through the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

. Agriculture developed during the early

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

. Forts along the Incense Route developed into thriving cities with many public buildings and farms. In the

Byzantine period The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

, Ein Avdat was inhabited by

s who lived in caves. They carved out closets, shelves, benches, stairs, and water systems, and decorated the walls of the caves with crosses and prayers. UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recognizes Avdat as a Heritage Site in part because of the uniqueness of the magnificent Byzantine Church. Dating from the third century, it is both one of the earliest and one of the best-preserved churches constructed before the recognition of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine. The church was badly damaged by Bedouin vandals in 2009. After the Muslim conquest of Palestine, the region was abandoned.

Modern era

After the establishment of Kibbutz

in 1952 and the construction of Highway 40 to

Eilat Eilat ( , ; he, אֵילַת ; ar, إِيلَات, Īlāt) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan ...

, a hiking trail was created. Ein Avdat has been designated a National Park of Israel.

Geography

The canyon of Ein Avdat is part of Nahal Zin, the largest

Wadi Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water onl ...

or dry riverbed in the

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southe ...

. The 120 kilometer-long riverbed begins at the northwestern tip of

Makhtesh Ramon Makhtesh Ramon ( he, מכתש רמון; ''lit.'' Ramon Crater/Makhtesh ; ar, وادي الرمان, links=no) is a geological feature of Israel's Negev desert. Located some 85 km south of the city of Beersheba, the landform is the world' ...

and heads north before veering sharply eastwards. Ein Avdat was created by erosion.

Springs

The southernmost spring is ''Ein Ma'arif'', featuring a series of waterfalls and pools. A Byzantine fortress overlooks the spring and adjacent agricultural land. Further north is Ein Avdat, a 15-meter high waterfall that flows into an 8-meter deep pool of water divided by a small artificial dam. Located near the northern entrance of the park is a spring called ''Ein Mor'', named for the spice myrrh. Growing around the springs are ''

'' and ''

es'', commonly known as ''saltbush'', which grows on riverbanks and can tolerate

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

Climate

According to statistics compiled by a weather station at Sde Boker, the summers are hot with almost no precipitation while the winters are cold with some rain. The lowest recorded temperature for January was . In the summer temperatures can reach over . The

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depe ...

is relatively high.

Gallery

Israel-2013-Ein Avdat 02.jpg, View of Ein Avdat taken near

Midreshet Ben-Gurion Midreshet Ben-Gurion ( he, מִדְרֶשֶׁת בֶּן גּוּרְיוֹן), also known as Midreshet Sde Boker, is an educational center and boarding school in southern Israel. Located in the Negev next to kibbutz Sde Boker, it falls under the ...

. Ein Ovdat, the pools.JPG, upEin Avdat pools. Ein Avdat Flood 1.JPG, upFlash flood in Ein Avdat.

References

External links

*
Ein Avdat National Park
{{authority control National parks of Israel Archaeological sites in Israel Springs of Israel Oases of Israel Ancient churches in the Holy Land 3rd-century churches Protected areas of Southern District (Israel) Mousterian