Everything about The Negev totally explained
The
Negev (
Tiberian vocalization:
Néḡeḇ) is the
desert region of southern
Israel. The indigenous Bedouin citizens of the region refer to the desert as
an-Naqab . The origin of the word
Negev is from the
Hebrew root denoting 'dry'. In the Bible the word
Negev is also used for the direction 'south'.
Geography
The Negev covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km² (4,700 sq mi) or at least 55% of the country's land area. It forms an inverted triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the
Sinai Peninsula, and whose eastern border is the
Arabah valley. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features. Among the latter are three enormous, craterlike
makhteshim, which are unique to the region;
Makhtesh Ramon,
Makhtesh Gadol and
Makhtesh Katan.
The Negev can be split into five different ecological regions: northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau and the Arabah Valley. The northern Negev, or
Mediterranean zone receives 300 mm of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm of rain per year, with light and partially sandy soils. Sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres here. Home to the city of
Beersheba, the central Negev has an annual precipitation of 200 mm and is characterized by impervious soil, allowing minimum penetration of water with greater soil erosion and water runoff. The high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev (
The Negev Heights) stands between 370 metre and 520 metre above sea level with extreme temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm of rain per year, with inferior and partially salty soils. The Arabah Valley along the Jordanian border stretches 180 km from Eilat in the south to the tip of the
Dead Sea in the north. The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm of rain annually, the Arava has inferior soils in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives.
Geology
The Negev is a rocky
desert. It is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by
wadis (dry riverbeds that bloom briefly after rain) and deep craters. The area actually was once the floor of a primordial sea, and a sprinkling of marine snail shells still covers the earth.
The
Ramat Hovav toxic waste facility was planted in the area of
Beer Sheva and
Wadi el-Na'am in 1979 because the area was perceived as invulnerable to leakage; However within a decade, cracks were found in the rock beneath Ramat Hovav.
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) From its inception, the facility developed a history of accidents and closures; in the past regional councils regularly discovered that the evaporation pools of Ramat Hovav's
Machteshim chemical factory had overflowed, or that waste was leaking from drainage pipes into their reservoir. Nearly ten years after its establishment, outcrops of the chalk under Ramat Hovav showed fractures potentially leading to serious soil and groundwater contamination in the future.
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Climate
The whole Negev region is incredibly arid, receiving very little rain due to its location to the east of the
Sahara (as opposed to the Mediterranean which lies to the west of Israel), and extreme temperatures due to its location 31 degrees north.
The average rainfall total from June through October is zero.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Negev'.
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