Negev, the Land of Abraham

The Nahal Zin and Ein Avdat Cliffs was formed by erosion as the great height difference between the desert highlands caused the underlayers to erode during the rainy season. The landscape is mostly eocene limestone, consisting of some brown-black layers of low-grade flint. Ein Avdat Cliffs is a so beatifull landscape to photography compositions, the flint slows down the erosion of the limestone.

The Tsin Wadi is one of the largest wadis in the Negev. It is about 120 km. Long and has a catchment area of around 1,550 sq.m. Its source is in the northwestern fringes of the Ramon Crater and its bed stretches north to the Ein Ovdat Canyon. The wadi turns eastwards, with an angle of almost 90 degrees, below the Sdeh Bokker Academy. This is the Tsin "knee". In the past the Tsin River flowed from Ovdat Heights in a northwesterly direction and drained via the Bsor Wadi to the Mediterranean Sea. The formation of the Arava rift, as part of the Afro-Syrian fault line, created a catchment base below the level of the Mediterranean Sea and generated a change in the river's path from a northwesterly to an easterly direction. Today, the Tsin River flows out to the Dead Sea.

There are 3 principal landscapes along the Tsin Wadi route:

The upper Tsin Wadi - a relatively flat course eroding along a widely meandering path between the tableau hills of Ovdat Heights;
Ovdat Heights Canyon - its summit is at a 40 meter high waterfall and it continues through a beautiful deep canyon. There are many springs along the canyon route.
The lower Tsin Wadi - the river changes direction and encroaches on the Tsin Wadi in a wide valley, the Tsin Valley, which forms the geographic border between the central Mt. Negev and northern Mt. Negev.
A beautiful cliff landscape, one of the most spectacular in the Negev region, was formed by erosion by the river on the soft hawwar rock and by the collapse of the hard limey rocks.