Archeologists working on the preservation of one of Israel’s most exquisite mosaics were stunned to find the artists’ and workers’ footsteps in the ground beneath the tiles.

As temperatures in Europe begin to drop, more than half a million birds are ruffling their feathers and beginning their journey south to an African summer. As they pass through Israel, these birds will be greeted with a special surprise.

The future looks bright for Israeli solar energy. Today, German engineering powerhouse Siemens AG announced that it will buy a 40% stake in Israeli solar company Arava Power for $15 million.

The Dead Sea has just become a candidate for one the world’s hottest internet contests, The New 7 Wonders of Nature. The lake will be one of 77 sites nominated for the prestigious honor, along with such contenders as the Grand Canyon, Argentina’s Iguazu Falls, and the Great Barrier Reef.

While we humans find food crops tasty, so do other animals like rodents. In the battle to control these pest populations, we’ve often resorted to pesticides; those chemicals, however, can do significant damage to the ecosystem as a whole. As an alternative, scientists and farmers are working together to promote natural methods of pest control.

Desert Pavement in the Rub’ al-Khali. Scale cube measures 1cm on a sidePhoto by Meteorite Recon on Wikimedia Commons. Used under Creative Commons License.

Newspapers, among them the New York Daily News, reported today based on a report on LiveScience that scientists in the Negev have discovered the Earth’s oldest surface. What’s that, [...]

Photo: SouthernPixel on Flickr, used under Creative Commons License

Cities around the country went dark today to celebrate Earth Hour and Earth Day. Beginning at 8 P.M., Tel Aviv landmarks cut their lights, followed by Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beer Sheva. Government officials took part in the efforts, which call attention to global warming and [...]

Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research.Photo: David Shankbone, on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

Covering over half of Israel, the Negev can often seem like a rocky, hot desert. But there’s a lot more to the area than meets the eye, as we were reminded in this post from Shankblog. There are [...]

Still the Dead Sea. Photo: Israel Ministry of Tourism
As some of you may have guessed, IsRealli’s recent post on a plan to sell off naming rights to national landmarks was our post for April Fools’ Day. We should note, however, that almost everything in that story is real.
Just for starters: Israel does have [...]

The Sea of Love. Photo: Israel Ministry of Tourism

In a bold attempt to raise money for Israel’s growing green technology infrastructure, the State of Israel has decided to sell the naming rights of the Dead Sea to the Ahava cosmetics company. While the full details of the Ahava agreement weren’t made public immediately, [...]