As my real start as sand collector began in Israel, I though about writing a few words about these particular piece of Earth who fascinated many civilisations and still continues to do so. Once you get to know it a little, you either love it or hate it but you definitely can not remain indifferent to its overwhelming charm.

This first part of my articles on sands of Israel refers to those sands locally known under the name of khalutsa sands, also spelled by some authors as halutza or haluza (see the samples no 0063, 0064 and 0065 in my Sand Atlas). In opposite to some other articles of mine about sand, the name khalutsa sands reflects here their geographical position and nothing about geology, although for many people it has a quite deep political implication as well.

Collecting khalutsa sands (sample no 0064) alongside the road 222

But let’s start first with geography: khalutsa sands region is located on the southern side of Israeli’s coastal plain and the north-western side of the Negev desert. It covers the beaches and the shore sub-regions delimited in the north by the Bsor River and the Sinai Peninsula. The area consists of about 80 km² of beautiful sand dunes along the border with Egypt, traversed today from NW to SE by the national road no 222 and neighboured by two other smaller sand areas: Agur sands and Shunra sands.

The Khalutsa region was of a particular point of interest since thousands of years ago when it belonged to the famous incense and spices trading routes between Mediterranean ports of (today) Gaza and their capital Petra on the Arabian Peninsula (today in Jordan) and from there to the far India. When the Romans tried to take control of these trading routes, the Nabataeans (ancient people controlling the routes) had to protect their trades and find secure ways for bringing the goods to Mediterranean ports. In order to avoid the Roman troupes, they’ve been forced to cross the very unfriendly desert of Negev and build there numerous fortresses and intermediate stops for their caravans. One of them is also Halutza, an archaeological site included today on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Basic archaeological activities in Halutza revealed the immense importance of the city during the respective era. According to Jewish Virtual Library, this is the place where a carving mentioning the first known Nabataean king was discovered, dating back from the year 168 BC. Further excavations conducted at the site under supervision of a specialized team from Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheva, Israel, brought to light parts of a Byzantine kiln workshop, a Roman theatre (the only one discovered in the whole Negev desert) and a large church, all of them being found beneath a 2-4 m layer of sand.

Nowadays, the area south of the road 222 is completely deserted, with almost no vegetation at all. On the north, the Bsor region is a savannah-like area with large number of communities and the whole region serves as a training field for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). Stopping the car for collecting another sample, we even met a highly ranked army officer who stopped his car too and asked us about what we are doing over there. “Collecting sand” – I said, and he looked at me with his ugliest expression ever. Coming from a man of his size, who carried a gun almost as big as myself, I wish I would have chosen another answer…

Entrances forbidden sign for IDF firing areas

Being so close to the border with Egypt and Gaza, and also training area for the army, the place is full of Israeli infantry, which makes the idea of crossing it just a quite interesting experience. This adds to the famous peace negociations at Camp David in 2000, when the Israeli former prime minister, Ehud Barack, offered the Palestinians the Khalutsa sand dunes in exchange for the Israeli settlements in West Bank. The offer was neglected by the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat due to the questionable quality of soils and one year later, the new prime minister Ariel Sharon ordered the construction of new Israeli settlements in the area as counter-measure to an eventual repetition of dunes’ negotiations.