En Gedi - Nature Park

The great attraction of En Gedi, is the Nature Park, with a flora which includes both water plants and desert plants; it is the home of ibexes, hyenas, leopards and many species of birds. The entrance to the park is on a road which branches off the lakeside road to the north of the palm plantation (parking lot; plans of park on sale). From here a waymarked path runs up the Nahal David valley into an area of increasingly luxuriant vegetation, in striking contrast to the surrounding desert country, and comes to a pool into which the stream falls over a cliff. From the waterfall a track (difficult at some points) climbs southward to the En Gedi Spring, near which the remains of an old watermill were found. Northwest of this are the remains of the Chalcolithic temple (fourth millennium B.C.), dedicated to the cult of the moon and of the spring. In the center of the building is the circular "Moon Stone". The two gates of the sacred precinct face towards the En Gedi Spring on one side and the Shulamite Spring on the other. From the Shulamite Spring a track continues north to the Dodim Cave, above the waterfall. From the Chalcolithic temple tracks run northwest to the Dry Canyon and west to a square Roman fort and a circular Israelite stronghold.