Bor Marva Recreation Area



The site dedicated to the memory of Marva Bibian, member of Kibbutz Alumim.
The Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) planted marjoram shrubs along the road leading to site and installed picnic tables and water taps in the shade of a eucalyptus grove.
Near Bor Marva is an ancient water cistern, built of mud bricks, whose top protrudes above the loess soil in which it is dug. Such water cisterns have been discovered at numerous sites in the Western Negev from the Byzantine period (for example, at Khirbet Mador in the Be’eri Forest).
Excavating cisterns in crumbly loess soil is impossible. To overcome this problem, the inhabitants of the region dug cisterns and lined them with brick walls so that only their necks protruded from the ground.
Over the years, some of the surrounding soil has eroded away and the body of the cistern has been exposed, as has occurred with the Marva cistern.
In the anemone fields of the Marva Recreation Area, there exists an unusual phenomenon that we are not familiar with elsewhere in the Western Negev: white anemones. According to local “tradition,” the reason for this is the custom of brides from Kibbutz Alumim to be photographed here in their white wedding gowns…
We are not aware of any other location in the Western Negev where white anemones grow. If such places exist, we would be pleased to hear about them from our readers.
Access
The dirt road to the Marva Recreation area branches off eastward from Highway 232, directly opposite Kibbutz Alumim. The road reaches the parking area after several hundred meters.
The photographs are from February 2020.































