Visit to Kadesh Barnea/Nizzana Sinai (29 May, 2008)

Farewell to Assa organized by Gideon opened me a way to visit the ancient Nabatean city of Shivta and the settlement Kadesh Barnea, near Egypt-Israel border. We had the privilege to have Yigal an expertee on Nabatean civilization as a guide. The other location, Kadesh Barnea is a typical Israeli  agricultural settlement where we visited a tomato farm and a commercial honey production unit. Fortunately, Yuval has his home in Kadesh Barnea and that brings us to have great time and  a warm get together with a heavy lunch at his place. The Egypt-Israel border was so close to this settlement and I was just wondering what sort of an easy life they were leading here. I was told that as per the peace treaty only Egyptian police and not their army are allowed to access this part of border called Sinai. Most household own a gun for their security! Located at the Egypt-Israel border, Kadesh Barnea is also known as Nizzana-Sinai in Israel. However, the Biblical Kadesh Barnea is believed to be the place called Ain el Qudeirat today; located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, a few kilometres south of the Israeli Kadesh Barnea. In Hebrew the word Kadesh means "holy" and Barnea refers to "desert of wandering".

Ancient Kadesh Barnea is one of the stations on the Israelites' journey during the Exodus from Egypt and has strong Biblical significance. Also known as Kadesh, this place is mentioned 10 times in Bible. Hagar, the maid of Sarah fled to Kadesh Barnea and the Angel of Yahweh appeared to her (Gen 14:7; 16:14; 20:1). It was here the Israelites spent 38 years of their 40 year sojourn in desert (Deut 1:2; 2:14). From here, the twelve spies were sent by Moses to explore the Promised Land for 40 days (Numb 12:16-14:9). Here the Israelites rebelled for water and Moses brought water from the rock, but for his self pride Moses was punished by God not to enter the Promised Land (Numb 20:2). Miriam, the sister of Moses died and was buried in Kadesh Barnea (Numb 20:1). And around Kadesh-barnea, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebelled against Moses’ leadership and as a result, these men and their families were swallowed up in the earth (Numb 16).

Kadesh Barnea/ Nizzana Sinai

Vered Tomato Farm, Kadesh Barnea

This tomato farm of 70 dunams (17.5 acres) is owned by an individual who resides in the settlement itself. The tomato what you see is different from the usual ones what we consume and are called the cherry-tomato. In Israel, especially at the southern Arava desert region, where there is problem of high salinity and poor available water, this particular type of tomato is found to be growing fine. Due to the stress-response, cherry-tomatoes produces sugar inside the fruit! These sweet tomatoes have great commercial value and most of them are now exported to Europe in large scale.

Honey Production Unit, Kadesh Barnea

Afterall the promised land is also 'the land of milk and honey', why not taste the Israeli honey? We got an offer to do so by tasting honey collected from bees that fed on three different plant species viz. rosemarin, acacia and eucalyptus. Each tasted differently, but the best was the one from eucalyptus. The care taker of the unit described the basics of bee rearing, honey production and the uses of different bee-products. As expected the talk was in Hebrew so I kept looking for someone to translate and managed to grab the essence. Finally, every one of us bought a bottle of euclayptus-based honey and said good bye to Kadesh Barnea.....

The Way to Kadesh Barnea

Nizzana Border

The Nitzana Border is an international border crossing between Al Uja, Egypt and Nizzana, Israel which was opened for the first time in 1982. Today the terminal handles only commercial trade between the two nations. If you could enlarge the photographs below you can see several columns erected on the sides of the road. This is the Path of Peace, a 3-kilometer long stretch of 3-meter-high sandstone columns where the word “Shalom” (the Hebrew word for Peace) is engraved at the bottom and top of each column in one of the 100 languages thought to be spoken by the peoples who crossed this border over a thousand years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitzana_Border_Crossing

Visit to Shivta National Park (29, May 2008)

Ever since my arrival in Israel, I was trying to visit the ancient city of Shivta near our campus. However, the major hindrance, was to reach Shivta via public transport. The infrequent Metropolin 44 drops at Shivta junction, from where you need to walk 10 km. To hitchike this extremely remote section was really a bad option. Obviously to walk to and fro 20 km was also not advisable. So this trip made an ideal opportunity for me. If you remember my earlier posts, I had been to a city called Avdat. Shivta is also built by the same community who built Avdat, namely the Nabateans (2nd cent BC to 1st cent AD). Not much is known about this ancient community, but the cities they have constructed deep inside the deserts are amazing. In Israel there are almost 6 Nabatean cities, of which Avdat is the biggest. However, the best known Nabatean city is Petra in Jordan (not very far from Israel). Importantly, Petra is one of the new seven modern wonders declared in 2007. Movie freaks who have seen 'Indiana Jone's the Last Crusade' should know that the last scenes of the movie where the Holy Grail was located were shot in Petra.

Ok back to Shivta…. A city located on no major roads with no spring, not even a single well and surrounded by desert of rock and sand. The only source of water was the rain water collected in a pond. Yet 1500 years ago the 2000 inhabitants raised grapes, fruit trees, wheat, barley and herds of sheeps and goats. They built a beautiful community of wide streets, churches and spacious dwellings. That is the unique nature Shivta! It was also known as Sobota, Subeita and Isbeita in ancient world. It is located around 40 km from Beer Sheva and almost same distance from our campus. Most of the structures you see here are built in Byzantine times (3rd-6th cent AD) and the city was abandoned during the 9th or 10th century. Shivta was indeed a Christian city. Today, there are remains of three ancient churches in Shivta. Excavations also indicate the existence of a monastery dedicated to St. Sergius. The northern and the southern churches were built in the 4th century AD and the central church was added later. Shivta spreads in an area of 81,000 square meters and believed to have accommodated 2000 people. Strangely, unlike other Nabatean cities it did not have a city wall. The outer ring of houses formed a protective wall around the city. T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and C. L. Woolley were some of the archaeologists who worked here. However, the first to dig Shivta extensively was the British archaeologist Dunscomb Colt (1933-1936). Today, his head quarter (Colt Building) serves as an inn and provides desert hospitality. The Greek inscription over the road reads “Good fortune.From his own funds Colt built (this house).

The Colt Expedition Building

The Pool and the Houses

The rain water for the pool whose capacity was 2,035,000 litres reached via special channels. The pool was a public property and its maintenance was carried out by turn. The houses of Shivta were of high quality in construction. The lower part of the walls were built of hard limestone, while the upper part by soft limestone. The walls were more than 2 ft thick and had excellent insulation to give the effect of an AC. The small hole you see in 4P is believed for fixing cloths/nets before the front door so that flies and mosquitoes are not allowed to enter the house!

The Pool (1P) and the Houses