Mizpe Ramon plateau
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Makhtesh Ramon ( he, מכתש רמון; ''lit.'' Ramon Crater/
Makhtesh A makhtesh ( he, מַכְתֵּשׁ (), Hebrew plural: ( – ''Makhteshim'') is a geological landform considered typical for the Negev desert of Israel and the Sinai peninsula of Egypt. A makhtesh has steep walls of resistant rock surrounding a ...
; ar, وادي الرمان, links=no) is a geological feature of
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 ...
's
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 ...
desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
. Located some 85 km south of the city of
Beersheba Beersheba or Beer Sheva, officially Be'er-Sheva ( he, בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, ''Bəʾēr Ševaʿ'', ; ar, بئر السبع, Biʾr as-Sabʿ, Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ...
, the landform is the world's largest "erosion cirque" (
steephead valley A steephead valley, steephead or blind valley is a deep, narrow, flat bottomed valley with an abrupt ending. Such closed valleys may arise in limestone or karst landscapes, where a layer of permeable rock lies above an impermeable substract such ...
or box canyon). The formation is 40 km long, 2–10 km wide and 500 meters deep, and is shaped like an elongated heart. Despite its appearance it is not an impact crater from a
meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as micr ...
nor a volcanic crater formed by a
volcanic eruption Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...
. The only settlement in the area is the small town of Mitzpe Ramon (מצפה רמון, "Ramon Lookout") located on the northern edge of the depression. Today the area forms Israel's largest
national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
, the Ramon Nature Reserve.


Formation

Hundreds of millions of years ago, the Negev desert was covered by an ocean. Slowly, this started to recede northwards leaving behind a hump-shaped hill. The hump was slowly flattened by water and climatic forces. Approximately five
million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago). ...
, the
Arava Rift Valley The Arabah, Araba or Aravah ( he, הָעֲרָבָה, ''hāʿĂrāḇā''; ar, وادي عربة, ''Wādī ʿAraba''; lit. "desolate and dry area") is a loosely defined geographic area south of the Dead Sea drainage basin, basin, which forms pa ...
was formed, with rivers changing their courses, carving out the inside of the crater which was a softer rock than that overlying. The crater bottom continued to deepen at a much faster rate than the surrounding walls, which gradually increased in height. As the crater deepened, more layers of ancient rock were exposed with rocks at the bottom of the crater being up to 200 million years old. Today, the crater is 500 metres deep with the deepest point being Ein Saharonim (''Saharonim Spring'') which also contains the makhtesh's only natural water source, which sustains much of the wildlife in the makhtesh including onagers and
ibex An ibex (plural ibex, ibexes or ibices) is any of several species of wild goat (genus ''Capra''), distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa. ...
.


Geology

Makhtesh Ramon contains a diversity of rocks including clay hills known for their fantastic red and yellow colors and forms. Impressive mountains rise at the borders of the crater -
Har Ramon Mount Ramon is a mountain in the Negev desert in Israel, near the Egyptian border and west of the well-known Ramon Crater. Its elevation is above sea level and it is the summit of the Negev Mountains. It is the highest mountain in Southern Dist ...
(Mt. Ramon) at the southern end,
Har Ardon Har or HAR may refer to: People * Har Bilas Sarda (1867-1955), Indian academic, judge and politician * Har Sharma (1922–1992), Indian cricket umpire Mythology * Hár and Hárr, among the many names of Odin in Norse mythology * Horus, an Egy ...
(Mt. Ardon) at the north-eastern end, and two table mountains -
Har Marpek Har or HAR may refer to: People * Har Bilas Sarda (1867-1955), Indian academic, judge and politician * Har Sharma (1922–1992), Indian cricket umpire Mythology * Hár and Hárr, among the many names of Odin in Norse mythology * Horus, an Egy ...
(Mt. Marpek - "Elbow"), and
Har Katum Har or HAR may refer to: People * Har Bilas Sarda (1867-1955), Indian academic, judge and politician * Har Sharma (1922–1992), Indian cricket umpire Mythology * Hár and Hárr, among the many names of Odin in Norse mythology * Horus, an Egy ...
(Mt. Katum - "Cropped") along the southern wall. The hills to the north-eastern edge of the makhtesh were once entirely covered by spiral
ammonite Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
fossils, ranging from the size of snails to that of tractor wheels although these have mainly been extracted so only smaller fossils can be found here today. Giv'at Ga'ash, a black hill in the north of the makhtesh was once an active volcano which erupted thousands of years ago and caused it to be covered in lava which quickly cooled in the open air, converting it into
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
. Limestone covered by basalt can also be found in smaller black hills in the southern part of the makhtesh, including Karnei Ramon. Shen Ramon (''Ramon's Tooth'') is a rock made of magma which hardened whilst underground. It later rose up through cracks in the Earth's surface, and today stands in striking contrast with the nearby creamy coloured southern wall of the crater, as a black sharp-edged rock. In the centre of the makhtesh is HaMinsara (''The Carpentry Shop''), a low hill made up of columnar jointed sandstone - polygonal prismatic columns of
quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
. The
pteriida The Pteriida are an order of large and medium-sized marine bivalve mollusks. It includes five families, among them the Pteriidae (pearl oysters and winged oysters). 2010 taxonomy In 2010, a new proposed classification system for the Bivalvia ...
n bivalve Family Ramonalinidae is found in early Middle
Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...
rocks of Makhtesh Ramon and was named after this feature. Nahal Ardon in the east of the makhtesh contains several vertical
dikes Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes, ...
. Occasional geodes of celestine can be found next to some of them.


Fauna

The
Asian wild ass 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 ...
has been reintroduced to Makhtesh Ramon. In 1995 the population had increased to 40 adults in the area. The animals are hybrids of two different subspecies of the Asian Wild Ass. It is derived from the
Turkmenian kulan The Turkmenian kulan (''Equus hemionus kulan''), also called Transcaspian wild ass, Turkmenistani onager or simply the ', is a subspecies of onager (Asiatic wild ass) native to Central Asia. It was declared Endangered in 2016. The species's popu ...
(''E. h. kulan'') and the Persian onager (''E. h. onager''). The original subspecies, the Syrian wild ass (''E. h. hemippus''), is completely extinct.David Saltz David, Mary Rowen, Daniel I. Rubenstein: ''The Effect of Space-Use Patterns of Reintroduced Asiatic Wild Ass on Effective Population Size.'' Conservation Biology, Vol. 14, No. 6, 2000 Other larger mammals of the area include Nubian ibices, Dorcas gazelles, striped hyenas and few Arabian leopards.


History

The ruins of a large prehistoric stone structure known as Khan Saharonim are found in the makhtesh, as it lies along the ancient
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 ...
, a trade route used by the
Nabataeans 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 ...
2,000 years ago. These ruins acted as a way station for the traders and their animals (''khan'' is the Arabic word for a
caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes covering ...
) as they proceeded further westwards to the Mediterranean seaport city of Gaza.


Gallery

Image:CamelHillMitzpeRamonMar262022 03.jpg, Camel Hill, Mitzpe Ramon, Makhtesh Ramon Image:MakhteshRamonMar262022 04.jpg, Mount Ardon Image:View of Makhtesh Ramon from its west (4).jpg, View of Makhtesh Ramon from its west Image:Machtesh ramon mitzpe ramon on the edge-by avi-yotham-2010.jpg, The cliff Image:גלישת עננים למכתש רמון.jpg, Cloud gliding (
radiation fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water drop (liquid), droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth, Earth's land, surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling str ...
falling in a katabatic wind) into Makhtesh Ramon Image:Dry Drimia maritima (Urginea maritima), at the north edge of Ramon crater (Makhtesh Ramon), Negev, Israel.jpg, Dry
Drimia maritima ''Drimia maritima'' ( syn. ''Urginea maritima'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae (formerly the family Hyacinthaceae). This species is known by several common names, including squill, sea squill, s ...
(Urginea maritima) at the northern edge of the makhtesh Image:Machtesh-ramon-01.JPG, Rock formation (
dike Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes, ...
) Image:Ha-Minsara (The Carpentry Shop) in Makhtesh Ramon, Negev, Israel.jpg, Ha-Minsara (The Sawmill): "baked" sandstone turned into hard quartzite Image:Sandy rectangular and hexagonal prisms at the centre of Makhtesh Ramon - Ha-Minsara (The Carpentry Shop), Israel.jpg, Sandy rectangular and hexagonal prisms at the centre of Makhtesh Ramon – Ha-Minsara (The Sawmill) Image:Ammonite-wall2.jpg, An
ammonite Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
in the Ammonite Wall Image:AmmoniteWallTamar052811.jpg,
Ammonite Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
Wall (Tamar Formation,
Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...
) Image:ISR-2013-Makhtesh Ramon-Sandstone color bands 02.jpg, Sandstone color bands


References

*Mazor, Emanuel and Krasnov, Boris, editors "The Makhteshim Country - a Laboratory of Nature". Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, 2001, , 411 pages


External links


Ramon Crater on Google Maps

Ramon Crater
Detailed trail and hiking info. fro
Tourism, trips and travel in IsraelMakhtesh Ramon's Visitors Center
at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority's website.
Bird's eye view of Ramon Crater
{{authority control Erosion landforms Landforms of Israel National parks of Israel Protected areas of Southern District (Israel)