Mamshit sits on a low spur above a dry riverbed in the northern Negev, a few kilometres east of Dimona, and from a distance it looks like nothing more than a heap of pale stones. Up close it becomes a town: streets, courtyards, staircases, arches, two Byzantine churches with mosaic floors and a set of large houses built by people who knew how to live comfortably in a hard place. This was Mampsis, a Nabataean settlement on the caravan routes that carried incense and spices from Arabia across the desert to the Mediterranean ports, and it shares a World Heritage inscription with Avdat, Haluza and Shivta as one of the desert cities of the Incense Route.
The Nabataeans, the same people who carved Petra, were masters of water. At Mamshit they built dams across the wadi below the town to catch the rare winter floods, storing the water in reservoirs for the dry months. Later the Romans and Byzantines took over, and the town reached its peak in the late Roman period; one house yielded a hoard of more than ten thousand silver coins. Today it is the smallest and perhaps the most complete of the Negev cities, and on a quiet morning you may have it almost to yourself.
The surrounding landscape is pure desert: bare hills of ochre and grey, deep wadis, the craters of the central Negev a little further south and, to the east, the long descent to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. Route 25 heading east from Dimona drops through some spectacular twisting desert country towards the Arava valley, and the Ma'ale Akrabim, the Scorpion's Ascent, an old serpentine road nearby, is one of the most dramatic descents in Israel, though its state and access should be checked before you commit.
Dimona, about six kilometres away, has fuel, shops and simple food; Yeroham and Arad further on have more. Heat is the main hazard: from May to October middays are fierce, and the wind can whip up dust storms in hours. Carry plenty of water and ride early. The light at sunrise and sunset, when the stones of Mamshit glow honey and rose, is reason enough to time your visit carefully.