A visit to the Negev should
also include a stop at the Makhtesh Ramon Visitor’s Center which houses the
memorial to Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, the educational introduction
to the Makhtesh Crater and wildlife refuge and a panoramic viewing of the
Makhtesh Crater. Related only by name
and location (and perhaps a well-considered marketing strategy?) they share a
visitor center so it’s quite convenient.
As we were approaching the site,
our guide explained how unique these geological anomalies were; they are found
only in Israel where all the “elements” cooperate, and that when the first two
that were discovered they were named the Small and Big Makhtesh. Then they found
this one, by far the largest of the three.
Not an impact crater, but a
unique example of erosion, something like the Grand Canyon. A makhtesh, is characterized by its steep
walls of resistant rock that surrounds a deep closed valley of a softer
material, usually there is a single point of drainage or in this case, a wadi,
think, stream or the lowest place where water collects and then carries off
debris. 
Nearly 25 miles long, between
1-6 miles wide and over 1600 feet deep, this makhtesh is shaped like an
elongated heart, which we were told is visible from space. (I wonder if Ilan
saw and reported on it? That could be an explanation for the connected sites) When
compared to the Grand Canyon which is 277 miles long, as many as 18 miles wide
and over 6000 feet deep, it pales, but is easily as breathtaking. 
The tour through the
visitor’s center begins with the memorial to Ilan Ramon, his personal history
as a descendant of Holocaust survivors, involvement in the space program and
his death along with the other crew members in the re-entry accident of the Shuttle
Columbia in 2003. The tour includes a
video telling the story of Ilan and his quest for space, some sweet recordings
that he made for his family while he was in space, observations about his home
planet, and the connection and love that he had for it and for Israel.
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| Grandpa/Grandson Father/Son A proud tradition in the IAF |
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| the crew of the Colombia |
The video ends with the screen rising and
curtains opening onto a spectacular view of the Ramon Crater. From there you proceed to a museum tour of
the discovery and ‘mechanics’ of a
makhtesh, with hands on displays to explain erosion, earthquakes and other ways
that nature produced this wonder. Then
comes a pretty cool diorama that explains how the crater came into being, a
quick trip through the gift store, where the ever present Hello Kitty appears
(she’s Everywhere, really, it’s a little weird where she shows up) and Then we got to see a movie that
reinforced what we’d seen in the museum section.
I did have to wonder how much
time Moses and the Children of Israel might have spent wandering around the crater; like a box canyon, if you found your way in you could spend a lot of
time trying to find your way out without GPS.
I can’t report seeing any of
the wildlife that lives in the nature preserve, I can report seeing lots of
Ibex poo, so I know they’re there.
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| The Earth from the Columbia |
“The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile.”
“All we are doing is for the
next generation, and the next generations to come. I’m sure the view of the
earth out in space is very unique, and since we don’t see any borders, and we
see our planet as a planet, as a whole, as a, unity. I’m sure that we all feel that we shouldn’t
have any borders and that we as human beings share this earth. This is the only
place we have right now to live in, and we have to keep it clean, to keep it as
good as possible for our own life.” From the Video, Remembering Columbia – ‘In
Their Own Words.’
For more information on Ilan
Ramon visit:
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