Hi,
We visit Mitzpe Gvulot after celebrating a birthday in Matnat Midbar Farm, a lonely farm in the Negev (where we we had Ashalim thermal solar power plant watching us from above).
The zimmer had a small pool on the outside, but the kids had no interest in it today. So after visiting the chickens and the horses, we had to find something to do.
Mitzpe Gvulot was chosen – a heritage site in the western Negev. It was the first of three lookouts built on 1943 to keep grounds earlier bought by JNF and to investigate the agriculture possibilities in the Negev (the other two are Mitzpe Beit Eshel and Mitzpe Revivim).
It was founded by 12 people, some are from Kibbutz HaShomer HaTzair Gimel organization, for tents and a tractor. The lookout was quiet during the Independence War, due to good relationships with surroundings Arab neighbors. A year after it, Kibbutz Gvulot was founded 1 km to the North, and the lookout was abandend. In 1996, the lookout was renovated, and it is now used as a museum and for tourism purposes.
Take Care
Gad
General view – The security house above the bakery on the left, the living room on the right
Welcome to all who came under our roof
The Madefe room, located outside of lookout
About the Jewish settlement in the Negev
The water reservoir track
Water storage area
The paved area to collect the water
The collecting water
The underground water tanks (they now full of fish), like the cistern in my parents house
First water reservoir in the Negev. Was built as an open reservoir, and covered with tar. It did not manage to hold water as the tar cracked due to temperature difference between the day and the night. It did used as the marking point when supply was dropped from air during Independence war.
First pipeline to the Negev. The steel pipes were the firefighters pipes spread around London during WWII
A truck as used as mobile metal shop to lay the water pipes on the Western Negev. It was nicknamed bulldog for its shape.
Tamarix experiment – on the left a natural grown tree (spread down on the ground, no supply shade but to used for defense) and on the middle and right a treated tree (hold up to supply shade). The second was planted by the only kid on site on 1943 – Noa.
Making adobe stones, the same that used to build the living building
The renovated, or better said rebuilt, House of arches (the living building). As it was made of adobe, and the site was abandon between 1950 and 1996, nothing was left of it when the renovation process begin and it was rebuild.
Concrete border stones which marked the area purchased by JNF
The house of arches from the front and inside (the roof also originally built of the adobe arches). The method of building this way was learned from the Bedouin tribes living around.
The exhibition inside the House of arches
The doctor who lived in Mitzpe Gvulot. He got the motorcycle for saving the life of the British soldiers. By saving the life of the son of one the heads of the neighbor Bedouin tribes, the lookout was kept outside of the fighting between Jewish and Arabs.
Noa planting the Tamarix tree in 1946
The bakery, the original building is what is building of bricks. The access to the oven is lowered as building the oven was too expensive. It still used to this day for tourism.
From left to right: Laundry, Communal shower, the oven and the bakery
The security house which was built by the demand of the British authorities. As some of the people were policeman and had to carry weapon, it had to be kept in a secure place and not in a building made of mud.
The barrel slick (hiding place) which was inside the security house.
The first floor of the security house was used for the wireless operating (Nehama Mirkin)
Second floor the security house – Diamond enterprise (which quickly refused by the social kibbutz member) and a dew measuring device.
The roof the security house – clear view for kilometers
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