2 Best Sights in Ein Avdat National Park, Eilat and the Negev

Thousands of people make the pilgrimage to this site every year. David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), Israel's first prime minister, was one of the 20th-century's great statesmen. He regarded the Negev as Israel's frontier and hoped that tens of thousands would settle there. When Ben-Gurion resigned from government in 1953 (later to return), he and his wife, Paula, moved to Kibbutz Sde Boker to provide an example for others. "Neither money nor propaganda builds a country," he announced. "Only the man who lives and creates in the country can build it." And so, the George Washington of Israel took up his new role in the kibbutz sheepfold. In February 1955, he became prime minister once more, but he returned here to live when he retired in 1963.

Set amid the waving eucalyptus trees is Paula and David Ben-Gurion's simple dwelling, a testament to their typically Israeli brand of modesty and frugality. Commonly known as "the hut," owing to its humble appearance, Ben-Gurion's small, one-story, wooden home has a small kitchen, an eating corner with a table and two chairs, and simple furniture throughout. Visitors such as United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld drank tea with Ben-Gurion in the modest living room. Ben-Gurion's library shelves contain 5,000 books (there are 20,000 more in his Tel Aviv home, on Ben Gurion Boulevard). His bedroom, with its single picture of Mahatma Gandhi, holds the iron cot on which he slept (often only three hours a night) and his slippers on the floor beside it. The house is exactly as he left it.

Next door, in three adjacent painted-wood buildings, are exhibitions with original documents whose themes are the story of Ben-Gurion's extraordinary life in Sde Boker; his youth, leadership, and army service; and his vision for the Negev. A film showing the footage of kibbutz members actually voting on his acceptance into their community is shown in the visitor center; the shop here sells gifts, jewelry, and books about the "Old Man," as he was known locally.

Water flowing from Ein Avdat (Avdat Spring) has cut a beautiful, narrow canyon through the area's soft white chalk, forming a marvelous oasis that offers the ideal respite from your desert travels. Walk toward the thickets of rushes and look for ibex tracks, made with pointed hoofs that enable these agile creatures to climb sheer rock faces. It's not easy to spot an ibex—their coats have striped markings that resemble the rock's strata. Rock pigeons, sooty falcons, and Egyptian vultures (black-and-white feathers, bright yellow beak, and long, pinkish legs) nest in the natural holes in the soft rock and in cliff ledges.

The big surprise at Ein Avdat is the Ein Marif pools of ice-cold, spring-fed water, complete with a splashing waterfall. To reach this cool oasis, shaded by the surrounding cliffs, walk carefully along the spring and across the dam toward the waterfall. Swimming and drinking the water are not allowed (you'll not be sorely tempted, though—the water is swarming with tadpoles), but enjoying the sight and sound of water in the arid Negev certainly is. The trail leads through stands of Euphrates poplars, and by caves inhabited by monks during Byzantine days, and then continues up the cliff side (using ladders and stone steps), but you can't follow it unless your party has two cars and leaves one at the destination. The easier and more common option is to walk along the streambed from the lower entrance to the Ein Marif pools at the foot of the waterfall and then return along the same path. Ask for the explanatory leaflet when you pay. Lock your car, taking valuables with you.