Zin (desert)

View from the burial place of David Ben Gurion to the upper reaches of the Nahal Zin.

The Zin Desert ( Hebrew מדבר צין Midbar Tzin ) is a stone desert in the Negev in Israel . This area is drained in the direction of the Dead Sea by the Nachal Zin ("Bach Zin"), Arabic name: Wadi Murra , which only carries water at times.

The area of ​​the Zin desert is hardly populated. In the area, however , there are phosphate deposits that are intensively mined around the Har (mountain) Zin. Separate slopes that are closed to public traffic have been created for removal. In the southeast, directly below the mountain, the two peaks of which are connected by a narrow, sharp ridge, there is a large stone field, the round rocks of which are compared in a travel guide with giant potatoes.

On the upper reaches of the Nachal Zin are the springs of En Avdat and the kibbutz Sede Boker , near which David Ben Gurion is buried.

The Zin desert is mentioned several times in the Bible ; the area referred to there, however, extends considerably further to the west. Moses is said to have struck a rock with his stick while walking through the desert Zin, from which water then flowed for the thirsty people ( Numbers 20). After the conquest of the Israelites , the tribe of Judah received an area whose southern border lay in the desert of Zin ( Book of Joshua 15 : 1). During the exploration of the land of Canaan by the people of Israel, the Zin desert meant the southern border (Numbers 13, 21).

Har (mountain) Zin in the Zin desert, all around intensive phosphate mining

Below the Har Zin, a field that looks like a field with giant potatoes

Web links

• Edgar Kellenberger: Zin . In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen (eds.): The scientific biblical dictionary on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.

Coordinates: 30 ° 50 ′ 19.3 "  N , 35 ° 4 ′ 5.6"  E