"Yotvat" is also the Hebrew name for Tiran Island. Yotvata (, ) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located on the Arabah road in the southern Negev, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Eilot Regional Council. In , it had a population of . The Arabah valley is an arid desert where the average annual rainfall is less than 30 mm and temperatures often exceed 40 °C (104 °F) in summer and 21 °C (70 °F) in winter. Location Located approximately 40 km north of the Red Sea, Yotvata is the first, biggest, and most prosperous Kibbutz in Hevel Eilot Regional Council. Being relatively far from major urban centers (41 kilometers north of Eilat and 130 kilometers south of Dimona), it is the center of the region, where most regional facilities are based, including a regional school, regional council offices, community center, sports center, movies and concert hall, and local airfield. History Establishment Yotvata was formed in 1951 as a Nahal settlement named Ein Radian. In 1957, it was established as the first kibbutz in the southern Arabah region by Ihud HaKvutzot VeHaKibbutzim. The kibbutz is named after an Israelite encampment mentioned in Numbers 33:34 and Deuteronomy 10:7: "…from there they went to Gudgodah, and then to Jotbatha, a land of streaming water." Althme debates over the exact location of the biblical Yotvata (some say that it is closer to the Red Sea near Taba), the idea of a desert oasis for Israelis was in the founders' mind; the local oasis was the Ein Radian wellspring. The founders, a small group of men and women 20 years of age and just out of the military service, decided to pursue a life of pioneering and built their home in the desert. They had massive challenges presented by the desert: the burning sun, the heat, shortage of water, salty land and water, limited transportation and no secure source of income. They started making all kinds of agricultural trials in growing grapes, pomegranates and vegetables. They also raised cattle and chickens with little success. The dates plantation proved more suitable to the environment's arid conditions. And then came the initiative to found a dairy that would provide milk to Eilat, which was expected to grow rapidly. Breeding milking cows in the desert was considered an impossible mission. In 1962 the dairy was founded, with four cows, the member who led the vision