Nahal Be'er Sheva

Bronze and Early Iron Age archaeological sites along the Be'er Sheva, Gerar and Besor Rivers

The Nahal Be'er Sheva (נַחַל בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע; Beersheba Stream) is a stream in southern Israel which originates just west of Tel Arad, southeast of the Yatir Forest, and is a tributary of the Besor Stream. Its tributaries are the Nahal Yatir, the Nahal Hevron and the Nahal Sakher.^[1] It is named for the city of Beersheba, the largest city on its banks.

A major archeological site on its banks is Tel Be'er Sheva.^[2] It contains many archeological finds, including a Bedouin livestock market at the Well of Abraham, which the Bedouin called the Suq al-Waqef,^[3] a winepress and Byzantine-era tombs.^[4] It converges with the Besor Stream at a location known as the Mifgash (מפגש; Meeting place),^[5] just southeast of Tze'elim.

Tributaries

The Nahal Be'er Sheva has three major tributaries.

The Nahal Sakher (or Nahal Secher), which originates west of Qasr al-Sir and drains into the Nahal Be'er Sheva just east of the Mifgash.
The Nahal Hevron (Arabic: Wadi al-Khalil (upstream), Wadi al-Samen (downstream)).
The Nahal Yatir.

Notes

References

^ Alexandrov, Yulia, et al. "Differentiated suspended sediment transport in headwater basins of the Besor catchment, northern Negev." Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 57 (2008).
^ Professor Ze’ev Herzog. "Tel Beer Sheva National Park" (PDF). Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 2, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
^ Kressel, G. M., and J. Ben-David. “The Bedouin Market -Corner Stone for the Founding of Be’er-Sheva: Bedouin Traditions about the Development of the Negev Capital in the Ottoman Period.” Nomadic Peoples, no. 36/37, 1995, pp. 119–44. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43123454. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.
^ Varga, Daniel, and Svetlana Talis. "Byzantine Archaeological Remains in Beer Sheva, Israel." Athens Journal of History 7.3 (2021): 203-216.
^ A.N. Goring-Morris, P. Goldberg, Late Quaternary dune incursions in the southern levant: Archaeology, chronology and palaeoenvironments, Quaternary International, Volume 5, 1990, ISSN 1040-6182, [1]([2])

31°11′31″N 34°34′05″E / 31.19186°N 34.56812°E / 31.19186; 34.56812

[1] Alexandrov, Yulia, et al. "Differentiated suspended sediment transport in headwater basins of the Besor catchment, northern Negev." Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 57 (2008).

[brochure-2] Professor Ze’ev Herzog. "Tel Beer Sheva National Park" (PDF). Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 2, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2015.

[3] Kressel, G. M., and J. Ben-David. “The Bedouin Market -Corner Stone for the Founding of Be’er-Sheva: Bedouin Traditions about the Development of the Negev Capital in the Ottoman Period.” Nomadic Peoples, no. 36/37, 1995, pp. 119–44. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43123454. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.

[4] Varga, Daniel, and Svetlana Talis. "Byzantine Archaeological Remains in Beer Sheva, Israel." Athens Journal of History 7.3 (2021): 203-216.

[5] A.N. Goring-Morris, P. Goldberg, Late Quaternary dune incursions in the southern levant: Archaeology, chronology and palaeoenvironments, Quaternary International, Volume 5, 1990, ISSN 1040-6182, [1]([2])

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