Timna Park, half an hours' drive from Eilat, is rightly famous.
We found it downright amazing.
We've been to America to see the deserts and the strange and wonderful nature that comes with them. Here we found a true blue desert again, but then 'only' a 4.5 hrs. flight from Holland.
Going to Timna Park we started driving along the Israelian-Jordanian border. This was all military terrain of course, and we even ran into border crossings and military outposts.
All very interesting (and soldiers waving at us!).
There's a stretch of about 2 km. between the two borders, and in Jordania there's a Hwy running north as well, so when you travel up the Israeli Hwy 90 you see the cars on the other side of the border going along with you. Weird.
Timna is cheap to enter, and you definitely need a car. It's an extensive Park with stunning views wherever you look. And many different coloured rocks: the first 'special point' is a fiery red, mushroom shaped rock in an ochre coloured landscape.
Then you come to the Timna mines: the oldest - and very interesting - copper mines in the world (think 4000 BC), in a glaring, white landscape with a large arch as an extra - ok, it's not Moab's Arches National Park but it's a great big arch if there ever was one!
Then there are the dark red-ochre Salomon's pillars that definitely reminded us of the Australian Olgas - not so much the shape (a pillar is after all quite different from a huge rounded rock) but the total silence, the heat, and these wonderfully coloured rocks that you could climb and walk on to your heart's content.
At the end of the track is a restaurant and very good art shop near an artificial lake, so you feel like you're in an oasis. We didn't want to leave this stunning landscape, and took the 4Wd tracks to see more (no problem with a 'normal' car).
After a day and a half in busy Eilat we were finally unwinding, and truly 'on holiday'!
We found it downright amazing.
We've been to America to see the deserts and the strange and wonderful nature that comes with them. Here we found a true blue desert again, but then 'only' a 4.5 hrs. flight from Holland.
Going to Timna Park we started driving along the Israelian-Jordanian border. This was all military terrain of course, and we even ran into border crossings and military outposts.
All very interesting (and soldiers waving at us!).
There's a stretch of about 2 km. between the two borders, and in Jordania there's a Hwy running north as well, so when you travel up the Israeli Hwy 90 you see the cars on the other side of the border going along with you. Weird.
Timna is cheap to enter, and you definitely need a car. It's an extensive Park with stunning views wherever you look. And many different coloured rocks: the first 'special point' is a fiery red, mushroom shaped rock in an ochre coloured landscape.
Then you come to the Timna mines: the oldest - and very interesting - copper mines in the world (think 4000 BC), in a glaring, white landscape with a large arch as an extra - ok, it's not Moab's Arches National Park but it's a great big arch if there ever was one!
Then there are the dark red-ochre Salomon's pillars that definitely reminded us of the Australian Olgas - not so much the shape (a pillar is after all quite different from a huge rounded rock) but the total silence, the heat, and these wonderfully coloured rocks that you could climb and walk on to your heart's content.
At the end of the track is a restaurant and very good art shop near an artificial lake, so you feel like you're in an oasis. We didn't want to leave this stunning landscape, and took the 4Wd tracks to see more (no problem with a 'normal' car).
After a day and a half in busy Eilat we were finally unwinding, and truly 'on holiday'!
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