MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — Some images from the little town in the Negev where I spend my nights. I like being based here because my students and I are central to all of our diverse geological localities. It is also my friend Yoav Avni’s home. Plus, it reminds me of my hometown of Barstow, California, in its desert setting, diverse population, and edge-of-civilization feeling. (The architecture, though, is not at all the same!)
I stay in the Ramon Suites hotel, which is very comfortable and reasonably priced. It is a short walk from here to the edge of Makhtesh Ramon.
Near the hotel is a building from Brooklyn! This is a Chabad-Lubavitch house. I’ll let this link to 770 Eastern Parkway begin the explanation. There are replicas of this house all over the world, each with the number 770.
The southwestern edge of town, with a new school and synagogue. The edge of the makhtesh is a few meters beyond the conical hill.
On the top of the skyline is a very fancy hotel well beyond my means. It looks cool, and strangely ancient.
A view to the southeast showing a wall of the makhtesh in the far background.
The iconic Mitzpe Ramon water tower, visible for many kilometers. It is the most interesting thing I can see from my hotel room.
A children’s mural on the outside of a school. Note the water tower on the left, the desert wildlife, and even a dinosaur. (No dinosaurs have been found here, alas.) This children’s view of their dry town is strangely watery.
Last and least, the town’s grocery store. Crowded and unfriendly. Always feels a bit Soviet to me, probably because as in that regime there was little choice where to shop. Still, they have kept me and my students supplied.
