Makhtesh Ramon

DesertsNegev,Israel

A hollow forty kilometres long and five hundred metres deep in Israel's Negev, a landform found nowhere else, under the Middle East's darkest skies.

September·Peaking now

Jun–Sep

The Milky Way is at its brightest, the core up most of the night. But the day belongs to shade: highs in the low-to-mid 30s °C on dark rock, no water, no cover — walk at dawn and be off the floor by midday.

Year-round The banded walls, the black hills, the ibex on the rim and the fossil rock stand here every day; what turns is the heat, the night sky and, in winter, the fog and bloom.

Makhtesh Ramon is a hollow in the Negev desert of southern Israel, forty kilometres long and five hundred metres deep. Nothing struck it and nothing erupted. Water made it. Rock arched up here, the top wore through, and the soft interior drained away through a single gap in the rim. The result is a landform found nowhere on Earth but this desert and the Sinai. The road hairpins off the rim and takes you down onto the floor, past coloured sands and low black volcanic hills. Anywhere you stop down there, the walls stand around you in bands, two hundred million years of old seabed read from the bottom up. At HaMinsara a short trail climbs a hillside of quartzite prisms in heaps, squared and sawn-looking, as though a workshop had tipped over. Magma baked the sandstone here, the cooling split it into columns, and the edges are still sharp. On the northeastern slope another outcrop is studded with coiled ammonite shells, some coin-sized, some as wide as a tractor wheel. Most were chipped off by visitors over the years; what is left stays where it lies. The animals divide between rim and floor. Nubian ibex walk up onto the clifftop promenade at Mitzpe Ramon in the early morning and crop the grass with the crater dropping away behind them; they never left. The wild asses below did. The Syrian wild ass was hunted out last century, so a close relative, the Persian onager, was released here and now runs the floor. At night nothing is lit down there at all. On a moonless one the far wall disappears, and the stars come out thick over the gap where it was. On cold winter mornings, not every one, air chilled overnight on the plateau slides over the edge at dawn and pours down the cliff as a slow white fall of fog that evaporates as it warms. It lasts minutes. Down on the floor, those bands in the walls all used to carry on over your head; what you are standing in is the part that is gone.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Check the moon before you plan a night here — the Milky Way needs a moonless sky, and a red-light torch keeps your eyes adapted while white light wipes out everyone's night vision.
Route 40 drops from the town straight onto the crater floor, and an ordinary car handles it — but the tracks running deeper in, toward Ein Saharonim, want high clearance.
Walk early and be off the floor by midday — there is no shade down there and no drinking water, and summer heat on the dark rock is punishing.
Rain on the highlands means flash floods here — the dry channels fill from storms you cannot see from the crater, so stay out of the wadis on any day rain is forecast.

Things to do

1
Wait for the Milky Way over the southern wall
On a moonless night the crater goes utterly black, and the Milky Way climbs over the far rim bright enough to see without any equipment. Local astronomers run telescope evenings from the rim, but a mat, a warm layer and an hour of patience are enough.
2
Drive Route 40 down onto the crater floor
The road hairpins off the rim and drops into the makhtesh, past the coloured sands and the black volcanic hills. Pull over anywhere and the walls stand around you in bands — you are reading 200 million years of old seabed from the bottom up.
3
Walk the stone planks of the Carpentry Shop
A short trail at HaMinsara leads onto a hillside of quartzite prisms lying in heaps, squared and sawn-looking, as though a workshop had tipped over. Pick one up and the edges are sharp — magma baked this sand into rock and the cooling split it into columns.
4
Meet the ibex on the Mitzpe Ramon rim
Nubian ibex come up to the clifftop promenade in the early morning, unbothered, cropping the grass with the whole crater dropping away behind them. Keep your distance and stay quiet; the low sun is also when the banded walls below take their colour.
5
Catch the fog pouring over the rim at dawn
On cold winter mornings, air chilled overnight on the highlands slides over the edge and spills down the cliff as a slow white fall of fog, evaporating as it warms. It lasts minutes and only some days — be standing on the rim at first light or you miss it.

Watch

Nearby

69 km