At the far south of Israel spreads a desert Negev, which occupies half of the entire Israel’s territory. 

First destination is the city of Eilat, situated by the most northern point of Gulf of Aqaba that belongs to the Red Sea.  Eilat lies where Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia meet.

Israel National Trail

One of the world’s most famous hiking trails, the Israel National Trail, which is called Shvil Yisra’el in Hebrew, ends in Eilat. It begins in the far north of Israel on the border with Lebanon and has a total length of 1015 km. This hiking trail is well arranged and marked (the marking is three-color red-blue-white), and for all who want to take it, there is a guide diary.

Right at the start, the trail takes you to Mont Zefahot peak.  It offers a beautiful panorama of Eilat, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The desert itself is more rocky than sandy, which makes the landscape hilly. The flora is extremely scarce and moving and burning of rotting trees is strictly prohibited, because it creates a habitat and a source of food for many organisms.

Most widespread tree in the desert is the acacia. It is the center of life in these waterless deserts, around which a complex ecosystem has developed. Acacia and its surroundings attract dozens of organisms, which  use this tree in various ways, either by feeding on it, using its shade as protection from the sun or nesting eggs inside of it. The presence of a large number of organisms around this tree attracts various predators. The most common are ants, which form some type of symbiosis with the tree. Acacia provides ants with an inexhaustible source of food, while ants defend acacia by attacking and destroying bacteria and insects that feed on its leaves. Ants also spread acacia seeds within their underground colonies, thus directly participate in the planting of future generations of this tree.

Along the way,  encounters with the Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) are often, which is used to people, and can be approached quite close. Capricorn belongs to the genus Goat, in Latin Capra. The characteristic of this family is that the males have a beard and a strong scent. Both sexes have thick skin on their knees, while their ears are upright and long. Their skin color is dark yellow with a white belly and colorful black and white legs. These animals are good climbers and are very sociable. The picture shows a female Nubian ibex, which can be up to 50% smaller than the male, which has long horns and a beard. For a long time, it was considered that the Nubian ibex was just a subspecies of the famous Alpine ibex, but in today’s scientific nomenclature, it has aquainted the status of it’s own species. Animals from the goat family (Capra) belong to the much wider animal order Caprinae – goat antelope, which includes all wild goats and sheep. In addition to ibex, they include mouflon, chamois and others. The main difference between wild goats and sheep is that goats during their evolution specialized in living on cliffs, while sheep inhabited dry areas near cliffs. Due to different strategies of avoiding predators they have developed these differences.  The sheep ran away from the predators, while the goats hid behind the rocks.

The Israeli trail runs by the very border between Egypt and Israel. There is a wire fence built on the Israeli side of the border with electronic surveillance, therefore without presence of soldiers. There is a paved road by the fence for quick access to border line in case of need.  In the far one can see the mounts of Sinai.  This part of Israel geographically also belongs to the Sinai peninsula, although larger part of it belongs to the neighbouring Egypt. 

At some parts the trail passes through Wadi, dried river bed.  Should there be heavy rains, Wadi becomes extremely dangerous as in no time it becomes torrented by flash floods and rapids.

Solomon’s mountains

At some parts the trail passes through Wadi, dried river bed.  Should there be heavy rains, Wadi becomes extremely The photo shows Solomon’s mountains, whose peak is a little more than 700 m above sea level. The Bible mentions that King Solomon had famous mines in the land of Ophir in the south of Israel, from which he extracted gold he used to coat the temple in Jerusalem. The location of these mines has not been precisely determined to this day, but the legends and names of the mountains have been preserved.

The rocks of the Eilat Mountains come in different colors.  Some are red, purple even bluish, and this photo shows a contrast between white and red.

Red Canyon

“The Red Canyon” is the most famous natural phenomenon of this part of Israel.  It was named after distinct red color of its rocks.  The canyon is composed of sandstone – a rock that forms from fine sand that has bound and hardened under the action of certain materials over the period of time. 

The Red Canyon leads to the nearby Raham Hill, which offers a view of the vast Negev Mountains on one side….

 and the city of Eilat and it’s plain on the other side.

Amram pillars

From Mount Raham it is possible to descend on the base of Mount Amram, composed of rocks that are distinctly red.

Amram mountains have cracks of unusual shapes…

….as well as these pillars known as “Amram Pillars”.  These rocks’ unusual shape was created by the force of the wind. Aeolian erosion occurs in dry areas without water and flora, where sand, as prime material of aeolian process, has nothing to bind with.

Aeolian erosion occurs directly and indirectly. With direct erosion, the wind blows sand and small particles off the rock, which leads to its stripping.

Through indirect Aeolian erosion, the wind lifts sand and small particles into the air, and applies them to the rock. Under the impact of these particles, the rock is destroyed, processed and polished. The rocks take on unusual bizarre shapes, representing true sculptural works of nature. During only one heavy storm, the wind can move 100 million tons of material.

The rocks can take different colors of gold, red, black and white, depending on its lithological composition.

THE END!!!

Check out other beautiful nature wonders in Israel, like Timna National Park and Maktesh Ramon.