Our virtual trip this week takes us down to the south of Israel to some of the most beautiful and dramatic landscapes the country has to offer.
First, we’ll visit Ben Gurion’s ‘hut’ at Kibbutz Sde Boker where he spent the last years of his life and his archives and impressive library are stored.
Then we go on to the nearby site of his grave overlooking Nahal Zin and the biblical ‘Wilderness of Zin’, where Nubian Ibex mingle nonchalantly with the visitors.
All photos taken by Israelinurse
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12 comments
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February 17, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Fabian ben Israel
I love that place!
February 17, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Yaakov Siepman
Beautiful most tray to come over next year miss it to much Adam
February 18, 2012 at 2:33 am
OyVaGoy
Lovely, just lovely. Thanks Israelinurse.
I love Ibex!
February 18, 2012 at 2:44 am
liamalpha
David Ben Gurion did come to live in Sde Boker after he retired from being prime minister. He lived there in a “Tzrif”, which I think translates better as a “cabin” rather then a “hut”. Here’s a photo I took of the view from Ben Gurion’s tomb of the Zin valley:
https://picasaweb.google.com/112850156167974674017/IsraeliMix#5423170230143367218
This view also appeared behind Ben Gurion’s portrait on Israel’s old 500 lira notes:
http://www.bankisrael.gov.il/catal/P029a.jpg
February 18, 2012 at 5:14 am
Duvid Crockett, King of DeLancey Street,/ Home of gefilte fish and kosher meat
Wow. “Nubian Ibex mingle nonchalantly with the visitors.” Great journalism; great photographs. Great Israeli eco-management. Kol hakavod Israelinurse.
February 18, 2012 at 3:56 pm
David J. Fried
In the summer of 1970, when I was 19, I studied Hebrew at the ulpan at Midreshet Sdeh Boker with other American students. Ben Gurion came over one day to speak to us. I was moved to see the graves; when I was there, there was one grave, Paula Ben Gurion’s. I remember gazelles, not ibexe–also wandering camels belonging to the Bedouins. I remember descending to the pool at the head of the Nahal Tsin to swim. Thank you for publishing these.
February 18, 2012 at 5:39 pm
Makabit
I love how relaxed the ibexes look. Man, that’s a couple of good shofarim on the big guy. (I know, I know, he’s using them…)
February 19, 2012 at 1:53 am
DavidS
Beautiful pictures. Thanks very much for posting them, Israelinurse. But tell me, whatever possessed Ben Gurion to believe that he could make such a howling wilderness “bloom”? It is certainly beautiful but I cannot imagine how it would ever become a garden. Of course, if I had come to Eretz Yisrael in the first decade of the twentieth century and lived to see the foundation of the state of Israel, let alone been the most important founder myself, I, too, might be inclined to believe that anything was possible.
February 19, 2012 at 7:16 am
ziontruth
“But tell me, whatever possessed Ben Gurion to believe that he could make such a howling wilderness ‘bloom’?”
Probably his having witnessed the blooming of other areas in Palestine that had been no less desolate when he made aliyah in 1906. The Tel-Aviv region looked just as unappealing, if not more so, at the time. Contrary to the Islamomarxist myth of the land having been a teeming paradise when “those Zionists” arrived.
I see you’ve answered your own question. Why ask it, then?
February 19, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Another Joshua
Beautiful colours and well composed Israelinurse. Caught the light well.
February 19, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Katya Segura
Beautiful!! I can’t wait to set foot in Eretz Y’Israel for the first time!!
February 20, 2012 at 12:05 pm
amie
In the summer of 1969 when a student I was on a tiyul in hills near Ein Gedi (my memory and geography is hazy so not sure exactly where) when on the narrow mountain path we abruptly came to a stop by an awesome and pitiful sight. Blocking our path was a huge ibex, hanging lifelessly, its horns curled around an overhanging branch. He must have been caught while trying to leap over from one side to the other. The boys in our group carried the enormous beast laboriously back down to the nature centre at Ein Gedi.