Ein Avdat

The story

Ein Avdat is a spring in the Negev Highlands, which issues into a narrow and deep canyon that Nahal Zin cut in the white chalk rock. The water forms a stream, a waterfall fifteen meters high and pools, the deepest of which reaches eight meters. On their banks grow willows and tamarisks, which are distinctly oasis vegetation, and around them live ibexes and eagles. In the caves in the cliff monks dwelt in the Byzantine period; in some of them are rooms and niches that served for burial, and the monks hewed steps in the rock in order to go down to the water. Close to Ein Ma'arif stands a square tower from the Byzantine period, which served the monks for observation and for guarding the agricultural areas. Beside Ein Mor stands an Atlantic pistachio whose age is estimated at about two hundred and fifty years, and its very existence attests that in the past more rain fell in the area. The site is a national park, and the visiting hours in it are limited so as not to disturb the animals.

• Byzantine
• Water and wells
• Desert