Today we got up early, packed and then headed south down the coast a bit to snorkel in the coral reefs, at least Kristin and I did that. We got to see some coral, but we think that you need to scuba dive to see the really good coral. We did see lots and lots of beautiful fish, however, and had a really good time. Then we quickly showered and changed and headed for Timna.
Timna is a national park in the desert which is filled with wonderful rock formations as well as caves and cave drawings. Like everything else in Israel, it has a long, long history. It turns out the the Egyptians came to Timna in about 6,000 BC or BCE and discovered copper. They then used local people to help them mine and smelt the copper for a few thousand years. The Israelis discovered all of the old mines when they started looking for copper there in the 1950's. The park is 25 square miles, and so we drove around and then got out and hiked in particular areas to see the formations, the caves, and the drawings both from the local people and the Egyptians. It was very interesting, and Kristin was much more adventurous than we were! We stopped at the lake and restaurant for a late, late lunch.
Then we took over the mountains that were all desert to head back to Tel Aviv and Raquel's house. I got to drive in that part and was kept wide awake by the big ascents and descents and the beauty of it all.
We went through Be'er Sheva, where once again Ben was a bit disappointed at the change that had taken place in 35 years. The town grew from quite small to the 6th largest in Israel, 200,000 people. And the Bedouin market that he had loved was completely changed. We looked around a bit and then went on home.
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bengoldstein/sets/72157623884940547/
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