Limans in existing tourist areas

The Wine Road farms, Nahal Boker, Nahal HaRo‘a: A center for tourism, holidays and excursions. The limans serve as entry points to the private farms, provide a convenient night-time campsite and give visitors a place to meet, stop and set out on foot or bicycle to visit the region’s natural attractions.

The limans to the north and northwest of the junction are unusual because of their method of construction. Most of them have terrace ramps built of local stone, and some are located in streambeds. They are planted with local or pseudo-local trees (acacias and prosopis). Some of these limans have only one or two trees and so have the status of “a tree in the desert.” Their main function is their attractiveness.

There are only a few limans adjacent to Yeruham Park, but they are large and built on flat land, which allows them to be used as recreational and meeting areas. They also provide a starting point for excursions to nearby flowering areas.

The southern section of Nahal Sekher in the Nahal Besor catchment basin consists of an extensive flat area of dunes where the groundwater level is high. Dense vegetation grows along the banks of the streambeds, and wild tamarisks flourish.

The lower part of the Besor is a focus for tourism of all kinds: it offers both agricultural tourism and heritage tourism from ancient times, the pre-state era and the period of the War of Independence.

The area includes Golda Park and a number of private farms that form part of the Wine Road, and continues on to the Revivim, Retamim and Tzeelim road. The railroad tracks follow same route as the road and link Golda Park to a group of limans to its northwest.

This is a wide flat region that begins in the plains of the northern Negev and continues as far as Ramot Nitzana / Revivim. This area forms part of the Wine Road, and after Tzelalim Junction it is dotted with farms and extensive heritage and archeological sites such as Shivta and Nitzana.

Large impressive limans can be found all along Route 211, standing out boldly against the loess and dunes of the plain. Most of these limans are set back from the road, inside military firing zones, and so are inaccessible. Nonetheless, they make a major contribution as a designed landscape feature in the desert. The limans near the road are used for rest and picnics. Limans on the approach roads to IDF bases are used by troops.

Ramat Avdat is home to the southernmost liman in the northern- and central-Negev cluster, and this is the most arid, vulnerable and untouched area of all. It boasts a wealth of natural sites that attract tourism, and the limans visible from the road form part of this attraction.

The Ramat Avdat complex forms part of the Wine Road, and its southern section (near Avdat) lies on the Spice Road. The limans in this region are small and few, and gradually disappear as one travels southwards towards Mitzpe Ramon. Among the local or pseudo-local trees are tamarisks, proposis, acacias and fruit trees.

Avdat National Park and the farm are the two southernmost tourist attractions as far as the series of limans along Route 40 is concerned, and they mark the end of the line of limans along the road to Mitzpe Ramon.

Limans in this area are part of the tourist infrastructure, and function as a designed landscape feature in desert surroundings.