Lush forests are not a realistic goal here. Survivors in the Sand explores Israel's new approach to creating sustainable environments in these dry, harsh conditions. Survivors in the Sand explores Soussiya, a Hebrew city being reclaimed from the deserts of Israel. An intricate underground city, providing piped water to every home, and refuge from the hot sun and invaders, it was abandoned some 1200 years ago. Today it stands as silent testimony to the fact that here, in the desert, life has narrow margins.
Subsistence is hard won.
In Israel, Survivors in the Sand finds that a massive effort has gone into a campaign to restore some of the green that was lost from the landscape over the centuries. In just 50 years, startling changes have been taken place. Within fragile desert ecosystems, the line between life and death is easily crossed. The rules are different here, in ways we don't entirely understand. Like the sea, the desert hides more than it reveals.