The Guardian of the Negev

The story

On the eastern side of Route 40, opposite the plants of Neot Hovav, stands a human head sixteen meters high — like the height of a building of five stories. The sculpture is the work of the hands of Emilio Mogilner, and it was set up on 27 November 2005. It is made of iron, earth and soil of the Negev, and four hundred tons of reinforced concrete are cast in it; the weight of the iron in it is one thousand four hundred tons. The sculpture was not commissioned by a public body. Its financing was borne by the residents of the area, among them Bedouin tribes, representatives of the Ramat Negev Regional Council and the organization “Man, Nature and Law”, and it was set up as a protest against the air pollution that comes from the plants of Neot Hovav. The artist declared that the sculpture is temporary, and that it would stand there until the pollution ceased. Those who pass on the road call it “Shimdura”. It stands there to this day.

• Public art
• Roads and routes