Negev additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants thrive there, among them "Acacia", "Pistacia", "Retama", "Urginea maritima" and "Thymelaea". A small population of Arabian leopards, an endangered animal in the Arabian peninsula, survives in the southern Negev. The Negev Tortoise ("Testudo werneri") is a critically endangered species that currently lives only in the sands of the western and central Negev Desert. The Negev shrew ("Crocidura ramona") is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae found only in Israel. "Hyphaene thebaica" or doum palm can be found in the Southern Negev. Evrona is the most northerly
Negev 13,000 km² (4,700 sq mi) or at least 55% of the country's land area. It forms an inverted triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula, and whose eastern border is the Arabah valley. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features. Among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim (box canyons), which are unique to the region: Makhtesh Ramon, HaMakhtesh HaGadol, and HaMakhtesh HaKatan. The Negev is a rocky desert. It is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis (dry riverbeds that bloom briefly after rain) and