Negev Facts

Geography

The Negev is spread over 6,700 square miles of Israel. It is almost triangular in shape with the city of Beer Sheva at its apex and the resort town of Eilat and at its southern base. The Negev region has an arid and semi-arid climate with a rainfall that averages between 2 to 6 inches, soil that varies from the mountainous to sandy and a climate that swings from the very cold to extreme hot.

Inhabitants

The Negev region is primarily inhabited by two kinds of people, the Jews (about 379,000) and those belonging to the Bedouin tribe (around 175,000). Bedouins, which may roughly be translated to mean 'desert people,' were the original inhabitants of Negev while the first Jewish settlements can be traced back to the time when Abraham arrived here in the 2nd century B.C., fought with the local tribes and then settled down in the region.