Ramat Negev Regional Council Ramat Negev Regional Council Ramat Negev Regional Council (, "Mo'atza Azorit Ramat Negev", "lit." Negev Heights Regional Council) is a regional council in the Negev desert in Israel. The largest regional council in the country, its headquarters are located on Highway 40 between Mashabei Sadeh and Tlalim. Ramat Negev communities are all kibbutzim, moshavim and community settlements. Revivim and Sde Boker are notable as former residences of Prime Ministers Golda Meir and David Ben-Gurion respectively. Some 6,000 Jews live within the jurisdiction of the Ramat Negev Regional Council. In 2012, the council approved the establishment of a new community, Ramat
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