Anyone who wants a taste of the environs the Hebrews experienced during their wilderness wanderings needs to visit southern Israel. Here you can see far.
For instance, in the southern Wildernesses of Paran and Zin the ground is composed of flint and sharp rocks, gravel, and soil with deep cracks.
This wilderness area of southern Israel lets you see far—in more ways than one.
North of the Wilderness of Paran lies several large craters. Israel contributed to geology the term makhteshim—which represent craters that exist only in Israel.
During their 40-year wilderness wandering in southern Israel, the Hebrews included the Wilderness of Zin in their journeys—and likely beheld these canyons (Numbers 20:1-2).
Erosion from a single waterway creates a valley with anticlines that enclose the crater on all sides, creating a makhtesh or “bowl.”
The area in southern Israel represents the largest national park in Israel and the most beautiful parts of the Negev Highlands.
Driving north from the Mitzpe Ramon Observatory, the modest home at Sde Boker where Israel’s first prime minister lived houses a museum that memorializes his legacy.
Although we can see far from atop the Makhtesh Ramon, David Ben-Gurion saw farther. The visionary saw Israel’s vast and barren Negev in southern Israel as holding the future potential for a new society for Israel.
The patriarch, Isaac, also dwelt in the Negev, and Isaac faced the challenge of finding water as well. The Scriptures say that because “The Lord blessed him” (Genesis 26:12), Isaac sowed and reaped a hundredfold in the Negev.
Only God gives life in a barren land and in barren lives.
Tell me what you think: Have you ever been to these places? To leave a comment, just click here.
You’ll find these sites and more in a book I wrote for the Israel Ministry of Tourism, 100 Off-The-Beaten-Path Sites. You can download a free copy.