![Map 4-04.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmbmdVm71iB7ha5NXd1wzmXYBUwMBEbFe68fN5t8jmVvon/Map%204-04.jpg)

Israel’s Negev desert is a wedge shape bounded on the west by the border with Egypt, and on the east by Jordan. The northern limit of the desert is not a fixed line, but a gradient defined by climate, and by civilization. The Negev is not an isolated climatic zone, but forms part of an arid zone stretching from the Sahara of northern Africa in the west across Asia to the Gobi. 200mm of annual rainfall is the minimum amount required to grow cereal crops without artificial irrigation. This marks the edge of productive land for agrarian civilizations. Satelite views of Israel show that the boundary of farmed land corresponds roughly to this line. However, the 200 mm rainfall line is not static, but shifts from year to year based on weather patterns. 

Mankind has found ways to transform the desert into productive land. The Negev was strategically important as a trade route to the Judean and Nabatean kingdoms. Later, during the peace of the Byzantine empire, parts of the Negev were farmed. Thousands of kilometers of terrace walls remain throughout the Negev. These terraces were used to funnel the limited rainwater, maximizing its agricultural use as it trickled down the levels. Thus through their ingenuity, the inhabitants of the Negev were able to transform the land, enabling it to support a relatively large population. Similarly, Jewish farms today are pushing in on the boundaries of the desert. Western irrigation techniques allow industrial farming in the desert. Projects such as the Yatir forest have shown that we can reverse desertification through planting. 

In the 600s, with the expansion of Islam, the Byzantines packed up and left, and the Bedouins moved in. The abandoned towns and farms were overtaken by desert. The Bedouin are a desert people. They are nomadic herdsmen who survive in the desert in their own ingenious way. Their goats and camels can survive on very little water, and graze on the limited vegetation of the desert. As nomadic herdsmen, the Bedouin tend to deplete the land of vegetation and move on, bringing the desert with them. They require large amounts of territory to sustain their population, and their concept of land ownership differs from that of sedentary civilizations. 

The Jews and the Bedouin are two divergeant groups. Not only are nomadic and sedentary mindsets difficult to reconcile, but each group transforms the land into its image. The two peoples, in the way they interact with the land, create conditions desireable for their survival. Jewish fenced farms are hostile to the Bedouin herdsman, just as desert conditions are hostile to the Jewish farmer. Upon the stage of geoclimatic conditions, the civilizationaly-driven ebb and flow of the desert is performed. 

![Map 4-01.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQ9MTe7YgLtF93KpDLZTbKwCMa8TJjWnegoW1upzn9Zab/Map%204-01.jpg)![Map 4-02.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQrfja2vcsoqKsarMDb5PmvgGMufL81SvBVveW3sBEkhD/Map%204-02.jpg)![Map 4-03.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeyERdLi7gLgonQpwMNvbXReJB1XPGypWc4DA23qPAtwm/Map%204-03.jpg)