Why this ride
From Midreshet Ben-Gurion it runs 461 km to Midreshet Ben-Gurion; allow about 7 h 14 of riding. The stops in between: Haluza, Tel Beer Sheba, Mamshit and Masada. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Shivta and Masada
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 461 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 14
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Shivta
There is no water at Shivta, and yet a town of some size thrived here, in the middle of the Negev desert, for several centuries. Its people collected every drop of rain that fell on the surrounding hills and channelled it into cisterns, and they grew grapes, wheat and olives in the dry valleys around. Shivta began as a Nabataean settlement on the trade routes between Arabia and the Mediterranean, and it reached its peak in the Byzantine period, when it had three churches, houses, wine presses and streets of stone. It is part of the Incense Route listed by UNESCO, with the desert cities of Avdat, Haluza and Mamshit.
Read the complete Shivta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Shivta is where the day begins. Next is Haluza.
2. Haluza
Halutza is a ghost of a city in the sand. Founded by the Nabataeans as a waystation on the incense route from Arabia to the Mediterranean, it grew in the Roman and Byzantine periods into the most important city of the Negev, known in Greek as Elusa, with a theatre, churches and a famous school of rhetoric. Then it faded, the sand moved in, and today only fragments of walls, a small theatre and the remains of churches poke out of the dunes south-west of Beersheba. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Incense Route and desert cities of the Negev, along with Avdat, Mamshit and Shivta.
Read the complete Haluza write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Haluza comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tel Beer Sheba.
3. Tel Beer Sheba
Tel Beer Sheba is a mound on the edge of the modern city of Beersheba, in the northern Negev desert of southern Israel, and it holds the remains of an Iron Age town that has been excavated and partially reconstructed. With Megiddo and Hazor, it forms the UNESCO site of the Biblical Tels, recognized for their importance in understanding the cities of the biblical era. The name Beersheba appears many times in the Bible, associated with Abraham and the wells he dug in the desert.
Read the complete Tel Beer Sheba write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach Tel Beer Sheba. Next is Mamshit.
4. Mamshit
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.
Read the complete Mamshit write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mamshit, about halfway. Next is Masada.
5. Masada
The Dead Sea lies more than four hundred metres below sea level, the lowest point on land, and Masada rises above its western shore as a vast flat-topped rock with sheer cliffs on every side. King Herod built a palace fortress here in the first century BC, with storerooms, cisterns, bathhouses and a three-tiered palace hanging from the northern cliff. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, a group of Jewish rebels held out on the rock against the Roman army. The Romans built a siege ramp up the western side, and according to the historian Josephus, when the walls were breached, the defenders chose to die rather than be captured.
Read the complete Masada write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Masada sits at 166 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mamshit.
6. back through Mamshit
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mamshit write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mamshit comes up about 301 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Tel Beer Sheba.
7. back through Tel Beer Sheba
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tel Beer Sheba write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 347 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Tel Beer Sheba. Next is back through Haluza.
8. back through Haluza
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Haluza write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Haluza, late in the day. Next is Shivta.
9. Shivta
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shivta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 461 km.
Leg by leg
Shivta to Haluza
Shivta → Haluza is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Haluza to Tel Beer Sheba
Haluza → Tel Beer Sheba is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tel Beer Sheba to Mamshit
Tel Beer Sheba → Mamshit is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mamshit to Masada
Mamshit → Masada is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Masada to back through Mamshit
Masada → back through Mamshit is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mamshit to back through Tel Beer Sheba
back through Mamshit → back through Tel Beer Sheba is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tel Beer Sheba to back through Haluza
back through Tel Beer Sheba → back through Haluza is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Haluza to Shivta
back through Haluza → Shivta is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Mamshit and Haluza · 213 km
- Haluza and Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Jud · 438 km
- Shivta and Area 1 · 425 km