Things to do in Beersheba

Neighborhood · The Ottoman grid south of the centre

Low stone houses on a planned street grid laid out around 1900, restored into the city's bar, restaurant and gallery quarter — the only pre-1948 street pattern in Beersheba.

Local tip: Come on a weekday evening rather than a Thursday, when the students arrive en masse. Smilansky Street and the lanes off it are where the good kitchens are.

Nature · Along Nahal Be'er Sheva, east of the centre

About 900 acres along eight kilometres of a riverbed that was a dumping ground, now flowing with treated water, with a boating lake and a 12,000-seat amphitheatre.

Local tip: It is the most convincing single argument that Beersheba is not just a functional town. Go early or at dusk in summer — there is very little shade and the desert sun is not negotiable.

Culture · Near the Old City

The Thursday market that predates the modern city and was one of the reasons the Ottomans built a town here — livestock, textiles, produce and household goods, in Arabic and Hebrew.

Local tip: Go early on a Thursday. It is not a tourist attraction and it does not perform for visitors, which is exactly why it is worth the alarm clock.

Landmark · Old City, by the Hebron road

The site traditionally identified with the well of Genesis that gives the city its name, presented as a visitor centre with the ancient well itself in the courtyard.

Local tip: Worth an hour early on, because the biblical layer is genuinely the reason the city carries the name it does — and the Ottoman, British and Israeli layers on top make more sense afterwards.

Culture · Old City

A contemporary art museum in the restored residence of the Ottoman governor, alongside the old mosque and the Islamic culture wing.

Local tip: The building is as interesting as the collection. The complex is the clearest physical account of Beersheba's four administrations — Ottoman, British, Israeli and municipal — in one courtyard.

Nature · East of the city, and out into the Negev highlands

A UNESCO-listed Iron Age tell on the city's eastern edge, and the gateway to Makhtesh Ramon and the Negev highlands an hour or two south.

Local tip: Living here means the desert is an evening's drive rather than a holiday. Sde Boker, Ein Avdat and the craters are all doable after work in summer, when the good light is late.