The Negeb

Graziela Tanaka

and

Tim Sonbuchner

The Geography Part of the Great Rift extending from the Dead Sea to Elath on the Red Sea

coast.

South - the Judean Mountains, the Dead Sea and the ‘Arabah.

West - the boarder runs along the international boundaries between Egypt

and Israel.

Area - It forms a large triangle area of 12,500 square kilometers.

Regions – coastal plain in the NW, a central plateau, a mountainous area

in the South central part, and a Valley in the East.

It comprises more than one half of Israel's land area.

• Major cities – Beersheba, Dimona, Arad, and Elat.

Israel

Climate

Rainfall - varies from 300 to 100 mm of rainfall per year.

Temperature - from 23* F (winter) to 100* F (summer)

As moving from South east to north and west, the ground

becomes more even, the soil more fertile and the rainfall

increases.

Subsistance

North in the Beersheba plain is fertile loess;

irrigation is necessary for agriculture.

Agricultural goods - barley, wheat, and citrus fruit.

Mineral extraction - phosphates, copper, clay,

bromine, and natural gas

The Bedouins depend on herds of camels and

sheeps.

Population

The Negev is a very sparsely populated area

Most of the population is concentrated in the northern part

and mainly on the relatively fertile Beersheba plain, which

because of its ecological conditions is a center of turbulence.

Continuo settlements occur along the great riverbeds in the

northern Negeb.

On the other parts of the Negeb a great part of the populations

is of Bedouins.

Bedouins of the Desert

Historic Background

pre-Christian - Semitic tribes.

100BC – 100 AD – Nabatean period

4th and 5th century AD Byzantine rule

7th century AD – Arab conquest of the region

After 7th century - occupied basically by the Bedouins, the

nomadic inhabitants of the desert

20th century - development of the desert began with the

establishment of several kibbutzim in the mid-1940s and

accelerated after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948

Kibbutz