Ofakim Park


Ofakim Park: From Gilat Interchange, on the Be’er Sheva-Netivot road ( 25), drive west about 4 km to the entrance to the city of Ofakim. Drive south along the main street (Herzl Street) and turn left on HaHida Street, which leads straight to the park gate. With the colorful flower statue, Safra Square welcomes visitors to the park.
Finding open plains and fields stretching to the horizon, in our little country, without some mountain or city “disrupting” the rest of the landscape is tricky. Such landscapes can be seen almost exclusively in the Western Negev. We chose to walk in such a landscape, where the channel of Ofakim Stream carves its way through the plains on its way to Nahal Gerar.
It is hard to believe that there were dozens of prosperous settlements during Byzantine times in this arid region, and where Israel dared to build a city in 1955.
But looking carefully at the landscape, you willfind that the Ofakim Stream is full of water and that when there’s a will–from the KKL-JNF–there is also a way, and a small forest can be planted, and a park can be constructed. That’s a Fact.
Photography credit: Yaakov Shkolnik