At 417 meters below sea level, the Dead Sea is lowest spot on the face of the earth, and the biggest natural health spa. It is called the Dead Sea because its salinity prevents the existence of any life forms in the lake. That same salt, on the other hand, provides tremendous relief to the many ailing visitors who come here on a regular basis to benefit from its healing properties.
Standing among the 2,000 year-old ruins of Qumran, overlooking the Dead Sea on the edge of the Judean Wilderness, visitors gain deeper appreciation for the Dead Sea Scrolls, that were discovered right here. The Dead Sea Scrolls, containing the oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible ever found and scrolls describing the life, times and beliefs of the Dead Sea Sect called the Essenes
Masada relates a story of perseverance and power, faith and surrender, ambitions, and a tragic end. Masada became the last stronghold of the Jewish zealots in the great revolt against Rome, and in the year 73, the 960 Jewish zealots chose to commit suicide rather than to fall into the hands of the Romans alive. Masada is a symbol for modern Israel, and "Masada shall not fall again" is a solemn oath taken by all inductees to the Israeli Defense Forces.
Beer Sheva, the modern-day capital of the Negev, has a history going back all the way to Abraham, father of the Jewish people. Not to miss the Bedouin market and the old city.
Located Southwest of Beer Sheva, at the Hatzerim Air force base, the museum takes visitors on a fascinating tour of Israeli aviation history. More than 140 aircraft and anti-aircraft exhibits such as missile launchers & missiles are on display. In addition to aircraft used by the Israeli air force, the museum also features some of the enemy craft captured by Israel, including Soviet Migs.
Kibbutz Sde Boker is the realization of the dream envisioned by David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister and defense minister, who loved the Negev desert and wanted to make it bloom. Sde Boker has retained Ben Gurion’s heritage. The hut in which he lived from the day he moved there until his death in 1973 is preserved exactly as it was when he lived there. South of the kibbutz there is a campus named after Ben Gurion, which houses a desert research institute, a Ben Gurion heritage institute, a field school and a guest house, a high school where youth from all over the country study nature from nature itself, a reptile farm and a desert sculpture museum. The nearby Ben Gurion memorial site, where David and Paula Ben Gurion are buried, offers a beautiful view of the Nakhal Tsin rift.
Sderot is a western Negev city in the Southern District of Israel, and has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip since 2001, from mid-June 2007 to mid-February 2008, 771 rockets and 857 mortar bombs were fired at Sderot and the western Negev, an average of three or four each a day.
A makhtesh (crater) is a geological landform considered unique to the Negev desert of Israel, and not actually an impact crater from a meteor. Ramon Crater is the world's largest makhtesh. The visitors’ center on the edge of the crater offers an amazing view of the crater’s beauty and its treasures, and the zoological garden houses local desert animals.
The Baba Sali, Rabbi Israel Abuhazera, came to live in Israel at the age of 70, and his tomb in the Negev town of Netivot is a magnet for some 600,000 visitors annually, was the scion of a leading rabbinical family in Morocco.
Over the years, the city of Eilat has become the ultimate resort city with hotels and beaches packed with thousands of Israeli vacationers and tourists from around the world, who come to relax in the country’s southernmost spot. In the winter it mainly attracts tourists from Europe who prefer vacations in a warmer and more pleasant climate while Israelis flock to the city in the summer.
