The White Mall (Photo: Moshe Rontsky)
When Moshe Rontsky and his son Yonatan heard that it rained well in the Negev last week, they left everything and rushed to go shopping in the mall - but shopping for experiences, and the mall was white.
"We received a rumor that it was raining in the area and we hurried to check it out, because it had been a dream of years to get there, and with a moment's decision we left the house at 11 at night and went to Makhtesh Ramon - me, my son and two other friends who were spontaneous," he tells Walla!
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The White Canyon is a narrow and impressive ravine in the tributary of Nahal Sagi, which is located in the west of the Negev Mountain and near the Egyptian border, near Highway 10. This is a rather rare natural phenomenon where a wide stream suddenly merges with hard kerton rock, thus creating a narrow canyon about 200 meters long.
Rain in this arid area is rare, so when every few years there are floods in the area, the canyon gorge is filled with water throughout.
The name White Canyon was given to it, of course, because of the white limestone rock of the canyon
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The White Canyon is so named because of the white cardboard salad in which the water carved a gorge (Photo: Surfer Photos, Moshe Rontsky)
The mall is about 200 meters long, and it can be navigated after floods (photo: surfers photos, Moshe Rontsky)
Rain in the arid area of the White Canyon is rare (photo: surfers' photos, Moshe Rontsky)
Rontsky, his son and friends arrived early in the morning for a hasty overnight stay in the 7 degree cold at Makhtes Ramon.
"In the morning we excitedly left in our van towards the west of the Negev Mountains," he recalled.
"The road is more than 40 km long in each direction.
On the way there were herds of hundreds of deer and one wild donkey."
When they finally reached the huge white rock surface, they wanted to see if there was water in the gorge. "The picture before our eyes was no less revealing - about 200 meters of a long and deep ridge, between two cliffs White and beautiful.
A spectacular canyon full of clear water," he says. "My son did not hesitate for a moment, inflated the sap and paddled into the canyon and its icy waters, whose temperature we tested by jumping from the sap into the water."
After a few hours in the canyon, they began the return trip on the jeep trails Northward to Nahal Paran, and back to Makhtesh Ramon, and from there home.
The Negev deer is not rare in this region of the Negev (Photo: Surfer Photos, Moshe Rontsky)
The place is in the heart of a fire area.
A plane bomb fell on the way (photo: surfers' photos, Moshe Rontsky)
The drone photos from above show how the canyon was filled with water (photo: Surfer Photos, Moshe Rontsky)
How to get there?
Please note that the place is in the heart of the fire area of fighter planes, so it can only be reached when the fire area is not active.
The mall can be reached from Route 10 at the Egyptian border, on holidays when the IDF allows driving there, or from Route 40 south of Mitzpe Ramon and from there by jeep only through Nahal Tsichor with an experienced navigator, on off-road trails of about 40 km each way.
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