Sde Boker

If you're interested in experience more of the desert setting in Israel, stop in Sde Boker on your Israel tour. The vision of David Ben Gurion, Israel's first defense minister and prime minister, Sde Boker was built in the northern Negev Mountains in 1952 by a community of discharged soldiers. David Ben Gurion, who actually moved to Sde Boker with his wife, wanted to settle in the desert and encourage others to do the same. He was successful as the Negev is now sprinkled with communities and fruitful farms. Sde Boker has not forgotten its origins, having preserved the hut in which he lived until he died in 1973. The area around his hut has been developed for tourists and now includes photographs of the early days of Sde Boker as well as displays of Ben Gurion's famous statements. The Ben Gurion Archive, his private library of over 5,000 books, can also been found in his hut. The hut next door was once the house of his bodyguards and has since been converted into a museum that focuses on Ben Gurion's love for the Negev. There is actually a campus named after Ben Gurion that lies to the south, which is home to a desert research institute, a field school, guest house, high school and the Ben Gurion heritage institute. David and Paula Ben Gurion's burial site is nearby in the Ben Gurion memorial site, which has a wonderful view of the Nakhal Tsin rift. Kibbutz Sde Boker's economy is supported by a number of different sources-an inn and restaurant, a vineyard and boutique winery, a souvenir shop, an art gallery and some of the crops it produces. Many other sites close by-Ein Oydat (Aydat) National Park, Nakhal Tsin, city of Avdat and the Ein Eikey spring-also add to Sde Boker's appeal to tourist on trips to Israel.