Mamshit National Park

The 2018 Perseids meteor shower, which is considered to be the best meteor shower of the year, peaked overnight on 12-13th August. The shower has peak rates of over 100 meteors per hour and, since it occurs in the warm summer months, is a popular summer star gazing activity. Together with a group of friends we decided to head down to Mamshit, a national park and world heritage site in the eastern section of the Negev desert, to watch the shower and camp in the grounds of the national park.

The night was beautifully clear and dark, and because we were camping in the desert, the skies were not polluted by any light. We didn't see quite as many meteors as I had expected - and certainly not 100 meteors per hour - but the the show picked up and we sometimes saw several every few seconds. Most were short, bright bursts of light. It was a wonderful experience.

We arrived at the campsite just before dusk so we only really had time to set up our tent and get the barbeque going before it got dark. Therefore it was a pleasant surprise the following morning to crawl out of my tent and find myself right next to the wonderful remains of a Nabatean city from Roman and Byzantine times!

Mamshit National Park was awarded the status of world heritage site by UNESCO in 2005, joining the other ancient desert cities of Avdat, Halutsa and Shivta - all on the Incense Route. Mamshit was the easternmost Nabatean city in the Negev and is the smallest, but it is also the best restored, with architectural elements featured that are unknown in other Nabatean cities.

The Nabateans were a nomadic people from the Arabian Peninsula and were experts on surviving in the desert. They entered the spice trade in the area during the fourth century BCE, but Mamshit was only built in the first century BCE when they stopped being nomads. The city was a trade post, but was also based on agriculture.

In 63 BCE the Nabatean desert cities were conquered by the Romans. Under Roman occupation the residents of the city began to raise and breed horses. They bred the Arabian horse and the city became wealthy. The Nabateans were also known for their stone cutting and high quality homes which lasted for hundreds of years, and were experts in collecting water in the desert, building cisterns and dams.

In the 4th century, the Byzantines took over the city and the residents converted to Christianity. They built churches and a 900m long wall for reinforcement. The wall encompassed the entire settlement, and Mamshit became the only fortified city in the Negev.

The name Mamshit comes from the Roman name for the place - Mampsis - while the Arab name for the city - Kurnub - is apparently Nabatean.

Visitors to Mamshit can see restored streets as well as Nabatean complexes that feature rooms, courtyards and terraces made of stone and supported by strong arches. There is a city reservoir and, alongside the reservoir, a bathhouse with three main sections: the frigidarium - cold room, tepidarium - warm room, and caldarium - hot room. The pottery pipes built in the walls, through which there was a flow of hot air, can still be seen. Additional things to see include the market place with shops on both sides, and the Wealthy House which was a huge villa with stables with space for 16 horses and a manger. The House of Frescoes has frescoes with paintings from Greek mythology of Cupid and Psyche. Some 10,500 silver coins from the 3rd century were found inside the house.

There are two impressive churches at Mamshit, one featuring a stunning mosaic floor with colourful geometric patterns, birds, a fruit basket, and five dedications in Greek; the other, remnants of a pulpit. The ruins of two large complexes outside the city walls provided accommodation for the merchants' caravans.

The ancient fortress of Mamshit was built at the highest point in the city. In 1936, the British Mandate forces built a police station for its desert mounted police force, which supervised the movements of Bedouins and Jews in the Negev. It was built on an ancient Nabatean structure. From the roof of the building there is an excellent view of the remains of ancient Mamshit and Mamshit Stream.

The city gate at Mamshit was built in the late Roman period. It was part of the city's fortifications, and was protected by two watchtowers. The gate and towers are marked on the Madaba map (a mosaic map from the 6th century CE, found in a church in the town of Madaba, Jordan).

In the 7th century, following Muslim conquest, the city declined until the point at which it was completely abandoned. Before the founding of the State of Israel, Prime Minister to-be David Ben-Gurion saw Mamshit as the capital of the future country, which dovetailed with his dream of settling the Negev desert.

After a good couple of hours exploring Mamshit's restored streets, rooms, courtyards and stone terraces it was time to move on. I love the idea of camping but I don't sleep well in a tent. We had made a reservation for a cabin for the following two days at Naot Farm, a family-run farm producing goat cheese in the Negev, just a few minutes' drive from Sde Boker, the home of David Ben Gurion. I was looking forward to a dip in the plunge pool and a comfortable bed! En route (well actually it was kind of off route!) we made a stop at Mitspe Ramon, above.

Mitspe Ramon is a town in the Negev whose name Ramon comes from the Hebrew "Roma'im" meaning Romans. The town overlooks a sizable erosion crater or makhtesh known as the Ramon Crater. A landform unique to Israel's Negev and Egypt's Sinai deserts', a makhtesh is a large erosion cirque, created 220 million years ago when oceans covered the area. The Ramon Crater measures 40km in length and between 2 and 10km in width, and forms Israel's largest national park. Though we have visited it many times before, the views are always breathtaking and a stop there never gets boring.

Then we arrived at Naot Farm, our peaceful desert lodgings. Naot Farm was established in 2004 and was the fulfillment of a dream for the owners, Lea and Gadi Nahimov. After making the decision to move to the Negev, the couple started working with goats and making cheese at the Har HaRuach goat farm near Jerusalem, one of our favourite haunts. They then started with 50 young goats at their own farm, which is situated in an enclave surrounded by bare hills, and in time they got acquainted with the desert. They discovered the delights of the desert including spiny mice and rock partridges, wolves and hyenas, spectacular floods, blossom after rain, the sky's Milky Way, and the quiet - mostly the quiet.

In July 2004 the Nahimovs opened their dairy farm, along with a small shop to sell their produce. Within a year the first two guest cabins were established, which increased over time to five.

We loved our cabin, with its delightful veranda, desert views and of course the hammock and plunge pool. Breakfast was brought to us in a cool box and included fresh goat cheese, salads, and different dips, along with eggs, fresh bread, and cold orange juice.

We found plenty to do in the area, which I will tell you about in another post, but there was also time to relax and to discover the beauty and serenity of the desert. Naot Farm is a fantastic place to stay if you are looking for a different experience in the Negev. We will definitely return.

* This post has been shared on All Seasons, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Pictorial Tuesday and The Keeping It Real Link Up.

Nahal Taninim

One of our most successful days out during the Passover break was to Nahal Taninim Nature Reserve. Nahal Taninim, or the Taninim Stream, is a small river, about 15 miles long, which runs from the southern Carmel Ridge into the Mediterranean Sea. It's name means Crocodile River in Hebrew, whilst the Arabic name, Wadi Zarka, means bridge over blue river. Crocodiles could be found in the stream until the 20th century; the last sighting was in 1912. Where the crocodiles arrived from is unknown - did they get there through the sea? Or maybe they were brought by the Romans? Today Nahal Taninim is the last naturally unpolluted river in the whole coastal area. Caspian turtles, fish, toads, frogs and a variety of birds including heron, cormorants and storks can be found in the nature reserve, as well as the yellow water lily.

The area of Nahal Taninim was settled from Persian times to the times of the Crusaders in the Middle Ages. It was the Romans who realised the benefits of plentiful fresh water and built a dam to collect water from Nahal Taninim and the nearby Ada Stream. In fact several types of well-preserved Roman era aqueducts can be found within the area of Nahal Taninim and, before our visit to the nature reserve, we made a quick visit to Moshav Bet Hanania. Right at the entrance to the moshav is a beautifully preserved high aqueduct, above, with three separate channels that over different periods of time took drinking water to nearby Caesarea, which had no reliable source of fresh water when construction on the city began around 22 BC.

Two inscriptions from the Roman era can be seen on the walls of the aqueduct, below. The first is a high relief of the Roman Empire’s 10th Legion with an eagle perched over a wreath, and there under, a Nike standing on a crouching Atlas. The adjacent stone plaque names Emperor Hadrian, through a detachment of the 10th Legion, as the builder of the aqueduct.

From Bet Hanania we could have followed the arches of the aqueduct through the fields of the moshav towards the sea, but instead hopped back into our car and drove to Nahal Taninim Nature Reserve. In the winter of 1991-92 heavy rains flooded the area causing great damage. The municipality came to improve the blocked drainage and, during the archaeological excavation which followed, an entire dam wall was exposed, along with new pieces of the two existing aqueducts and a third conduit which had been covered with silt.

Just a short walk from the entrance to the reserve we found the Roman dam and the lake it created, which covers 6000 dunams. The dam utilised three wooden floodgates to elevate the water and control its flow through the ground level aqueducts, which were chiseled out of stone by Roman slaves and soldiers. But even the Romans made mistakes! An aqueduct that leads to nowhere can be found near the dam, probably because the Roman engineers realised they had made a mistake in judging the height.

Another artifact found nearby is a vertical paddle wheel from the Byzantine period, rare in Israel because they require a great deal of water. The plentiful water in the area was also used to operate flour mills during the later Byzantine and Ottoman periods. The Turks, who ruled Palestine from the 16th to the 20th centuries, built steep slides that began at the top of the dam and dropped several stories down to the mill: the resulting water pressure turned a horizontal water wheel that, in turn, moved the grindstones. Several of the slides have been cleaned and restored, and are found next to the walls of the dam.

Near to the dam are several ancient gravel quarries, above. These quarries were used to produce building materials for the entire area. In the early part of the 20th century, Edmund de Rothschild purchased much of the surrounding land and constructed a pipe factory in one of the quarries. The purpose of the project was to lay thousands of pipes to drain the nearby Kebara swamp, which was infested with mosquitoes, though the effort failed. During the archaeological excavations many clay pipes were discovered in the quarry. 

There are four trails to follow in the nature reserve. We took the red circular trail which passed by the dam, the ancient water system, took us across a floating bridge, past the Ottoman flour mills and through dense stream vegetation. Children from the nearby Israeli-Arab village Jusr a- Zarka sometimes splash in the stream, or boys ride their horses, fish and graze their livestock, though we only saw goats on the day we visited. The origin of people in the village is a Bedouin tribe Al-Awarna from northern Africa. The village was established in 1920.

We ended our visit by walking along the system of aqueducts, ignoring the one that that leads to nowhere! One aqueduct was used to transport water to Caesarea, whilst other channels took water to the water wheels.
Though we saw no crocodiles, we left the reserve with a better understanding of ancient infrastructure, and we enjoyed seeing some lush vegetation, catfish and quite a few frogs too! 

From Nahal Taninim it was a short drive to Caesarea, to view another portion of the high level aqueduct visited at Moshav Bet Hanania, below. The aqueduct, which was built in several phases, starting from King Herod, can be seen on the beach of Caesarea, north of the ancient city. It is an imposing structure which can be explored by walking its length until it becomes buried in the sand. Mister Handmade in Israel didn't fancy the walk though and the youngest son much preferred to jump from the top of the aqueduct into the sand dunes below. Although it seems that the aqueduct ends here, it once continued on south into the city, but that section was damaged by the sea.

Finally it was time to head to the Caesarea National Park for ice cream. Always the best way to end a day out!