Arad Things to Do Tips by Martin_S. Top 5 Page for this destination

Patrick (Patje) and Lea

Finally our friends Patrick and Lea decided to come visit us here in Arad...we met in Dovje, Slovenia way back in 2001 and met up twice more there and then visited them in their home in Belgium. It was about TIME they showed up here...well they did and some of their adventures with us will be told elsewhere, but as you can see they did enjoy breakfast and also a BBQ with beer, this is of course not to mention, Eilat, Dead Sea, Ein Avdat, Hai Bar Yotvatah, Har Karkom, Havat Arundel, Bird Research Center, Tel Lachish, Maktesh Gadol, Maktesh Ramon, Masada, Nahal David (Ein Gedi) and Timna that we visited together.

ISA lands in Arad

Yes from half way around the world, Isa showed up on our doorstep wanting to see the holyland...well we could at least help her see the southern half. Arad, Avdat, Ben Gurion's Gravesite, Tzapit Gornie and a few others, not to mention Zohara's cooking at home !!!

Julie & Vere return to us in Arad

We have had the pleasure of having Julie and Vere with us before and so much enjoyed it that we convinced them to return. We also had spent a few days with Julie and Jo at their home in California and at Vere's in Arizona where we had a more than wonderful time. This return trip was even better because they convinced Julie's sisters Jo and Carmen to join them.... We took this photo of them with Zohara on our lawn. Carmen got to hold our cat Nala for the photo ^O^

Arad snow January 2008

Yes, snow in the desert, each time it happens, about every 10 years, it still amazes me. We are at a height of only 600+ meters, but we do get snow every so often. These few pictures show what we look like when draped with snow and it is often the occassion to take a few hours off work to explore this new white world. It is "different" seeing palm trees and Yucca cacti covered in snow. They are NOT plants you usually associate with the white stuff.
Time to get out the scarves and knitted caps and go play in the snow.

Marijana makes the trip to Arad

Marijana made the trip all the way from Macedonia to Arad and it seems that during her entire visit she was smiling or laughing...I guess she enjoyed Arad and Israel and visiting us ^O^
Hope we can have her back for a longer visit soon and thanks Marijana for making our home a little bit MORE happier than it usually is.

Yoona (Hotsauce) visiting Arad

The world famous Yoona (affectionatly known as "Hotsauce") has finally arrived here in Arad with Guy. They were here for far too short a time, but we do hope they will grace us with another, LONGER, visit soon. How we met is a funny story.....Yoona asked me to teach her a few words or phrases in Hebrew, the language of Israel. Now that in itself is passing strange since only about 8 million people speak this language, so I asked her "Why?". She told me that her boyfriend was from Israel...so I taught her a few essentials.
Yesh le kaev roash (I have a headache)
Lo akshav (not now)
Lo ba le (don't feel like it)
and others of course....this new vocabulary interested Guy and then I found out that he had actually lived in our town of Arad and we had friends in common. So for Guy, when they arrived it truly was like coming home !!! ^O^

Arad Observation Point

The first photo shows, Michele who arrived to visit and said she wanted to see the desert, well the best place to see it is from the Arad Observation Point at the far southeastern corner of Arad...you can see behind us the Dead Sea (was a misty day but if you look you CAN see it just behind the white structure in the background.

Nahal Lahat and the Helmonit

Sometime in the late fall or early winter, maybe October or November...after the first cool nights and some slight rainfall, that is the time to take a visit to Nahal Lahat, only a few kilometers southeast of Arad. Just off of highway 31 from Arad, take the highway 258 south for about 1-2 kilometers. Nahal Lahat is marked with a sign on the road, but the singular flowers, the Helmonit is NOT mentioned. If you visit the canyon any other time of year you would never suspect that this is the scene of such spectacular blooms. But during the RIGHT time you will be treated to an unreal sight, in the middle of the dry desert you will suddenly see blooms that rival the sun in their brightness. The Helmonit is named after the color of the yolk of the egg (Helmon in Hebrew, hence Helmonit). They peek out at you from the bare ground around boulders where you would never suspect such color. Well worth a visit each and every year.

Tel Kryiot

This is a recent archeological dig at a site called "Tel Kryiot" (Tel in Hebrew means "mound", where you can often find ancient building sites), the leading archeologist is our friend Steve who you can see in the forefront of the first picture.
The site is only a few kilometers west and north of Arad, about a 2 hour walk across the desert. Steve and his group found a great mosaic floor and also a lintel inscribed and having the name of the town "Kryiot". Now Steve has a supposition, that one of the disciples of Jesus came from this town. His theory goes like this.
The name of the disciple was Judas, whose surname was Ishkryiot. The word "Ish" in Hebrew means "man" or "person". Often in ancient times people did not have a family name so were often refered to by their place of birth, so IshKryiot, could mean "Man of Kryiot", so hence the name Judas IshKryiot.....what do you think.

New Hiking Paths Around Arad

Working with a group of fellow hiking enthusiasts here in Arad we developed a series of 8 short hiking trails around our city of Arad. I took Gulench on one of them..
The first picture shows the start of our hike and NO, it is not an underground hike, we just found a hole in the ground to check out. The second picture shows some of the larger scenery that you will see on this hike, our mountainous desert, arid, dry, colorful and amazing. The next two pictures show a few of the tiny flowers that manage to live in our desert, but they are not in abundance, you do have to look for them. The last picture shows one of the showcase trees of our desert, the ***a, this tree finds water where there is no water and manages to survive. The Bedouin tribes in this area use them for firewood even though they are in nature preserve parks and also a protected species, so they have almost disappeared.

Directions: Southeastern edge of Arad.