In the Negev Desert there is a large dent in the earth known as the Ramon Crater or Makhtesh Ramon. When Sarah and I told Allie, our hostess in Jerusalem, that we were going to the Ramon Crater, Allie exclaimed “It’s a makhtesh! It’s not a crater!” From what I understand, a makhtesh is a huge geological landform that looks a whole lot like a crater but was not created by an impact the way craters are. Rather, they are the result of erosion. Incidentally, the makhtesh formation is unique to Israel. That being said, Israeli signs refer to the dent as a crater, not a makhtesh, as a quirk in the translation. To satisfy everyone, Allie and I decided that a makhtesh is a kosher crater.
Mitzpe Ramon is a small town on the ridge of the makhtesh. They have all kinds of neat outdoor stuff to do there like rappelling and hang gliding and hiking and whatnot that we didn’t have time to tackle on this trip. Driving through the town very briefly has earned it a spot on my list of places I absolutely must return to. It is also the first place in hundreds of kilometers that has a gas station. I know this because as our little car was huffing and puffing up the very steep road to get to the town the needle on the gas gauge was quivering on empty as a result. I was beginning to plot quietly to myself how we would pull off sleeping in this tiny car when we saw the light of the gas station.
We didn’t have time to stop for long since we still had a couple hours to drive to get to Jerusalem that night. Since we needed to fill up on gas anyway we also stopped for a cup of coffee and directions to the makhtesh. It was nearly sunset and the sun setting over makhtesh in the desert sounded nice. I asked the guy at the coffee shop where the crater was.
“It’s a makhtesh.”
“Yes, I…”
“It is very nice at sunset.”
“Yes. Where is it?”
“Well, you will see it on your way to Eilat. You are driving south, right?”
“No, we’ve just come from Eilat.”
“You came from Eilat? You came from the south?”
He started sounding suspicious so I started getting suspicious.
“Yes?”
“On road 40?”
“Yes!”
“You just drove through it.”
To be fair, on the way to Mitzpe Ramon both Sarah and I had noticed that the landscape looked different than other parts of the desert we had driven through, that some of the colors of the soil were different, and that it generally just looked weird. It didn’t occur to us that we were driving through the kosher crater but lo and behold we had just driven across the whole damn thing. Let me tell you: it’s pretty big.
Here are some pictures from inside a makhtesh. One of the things I couldn't help but notice (in fact was routinely amazed by) was the silence. I frequently made us stop on the side of the road to take pictures because I couldn't believe the landscape. At times it looked like we were on the moon. But on top of that it was quiet in a way I hadn't heard before. I think there are different kinds of quiet. Desert quiet, empty room quiet, everything-covered-in-snow-so-everyone-is-inside quiet, lake quiet, etc. I don't think I've been in the middle of a desert, that far away from any city or town, with no cars around, with that kind of quiet.
So try to imagine that when you look at these.
Mitzpe Ramon is a small town on the ridge of the makhtesh. They have all kinds of neat outdoor stuff to do there like rappelling and hang gliding and hiking and whatnot that we didn’t have time to tackle on this trip. Driving through the town very briefly has earned it a spot on my list of places I absolutely must return to. It is also the first place in hundreds of kilometers that has a gas station. I know this because as our little car was huffing and puffing up the very steep road to get to the town the needle on the gas gauge was quivering on empty as a result. I was beginning to plot quietly to myself how we would pull off sleeping in this tiny car when we saw the light of the gas station.
We didn’t have time to stop for long since we still had a couple hours to drive to get to Jerusalem that night. Since we needed to fill up on gas anyway we also stopped for a cup of coffee and directions to the makhtesh. It was nearly sunset and the sun setting over makhtesh in the desert sounded nice. I asked the guy at the coffee shop where the crater was.
“It’s a makhtesh.”
“Yes, I…”
“It is very nice at sunset.”
“Yes. Where is it?”
“Well, you will see it on your way to Eilat. You are driving south, right?”
“No, we’ve just come from Eilat.”
“You came from Eilat? You came from the south?”
He started sounding suspicious so I started getting suspicious.
“Yes?”
“On road 40?”
“Yes!”
“You just drove through it.”
To be fair, on the way to Mitzpe Ramon both Sarah and I had noticed that the landscape looked different than other parts of the desert we had driven through, that some of the colors of the soil were different, and that it generally just looked weird. It didn’t occur to us that we were driving through the kosher crater but lo and behold we had just driven across the whole damn thing. Let me tell you: it’s pretty big.
So try to imagine that when you look at these.
