Crater Day

Last week my family and I went to Mitzpe Ramon. Mitzpe Ramon is in the Negev. It’s the biggest crater in the world. We stopped there on our way to Eilat. We went hiking to a lookout point on the first night. It took about twenty minutes to get to the top but it was worth it. I sat on the “head” of the lookout because the lookout point looked like a camel, so I sat on the head of the camel. In the morning, we took another hike down into the crater. It was a hard-ish hike because the path was really narrow and there were a bunch of rocks, but it was fun. We were supposed to hike into the crater and all the way to the Visitors’ Center, but we didn’t have time. Instead, we drove there and we saw two rooms dedicated to Ilan Ramon who was the first Israeli astronaut. He was also a fighter pilot for the IDF and he led an important mission against Iraq. One of the rooms is dedicated to his career as a pilot because he trained in Mitzpe Ramon. The other room tells the story of how he flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia and died when it blew up. At the other part of the Visitors’ Center we saw in a 3D movie how the crater was formed. It wasn’t created by a meteor. It was created by natural causes over thousands of years. We also saw a movie about all the animals and plants that live in Mitzpe Ramon. Mitzpe Ramon was really fun and I hope I go there again.

The "camel" lookout over Mitzpe Ramon

Sitting on the head of the camel lookout

Ilan Ramon display at Visitors' Center