National Stamp Exhibition Beer Sheva 90 Souvenir Stamp Sheet

This stamp was issued in September, 1990. The National Stamp Exhibition, “Beer Sheva 90”, was held in the Yad Lebanim House in Beer Sheva from 5-12 October, during the Festival of Sukkot. The exhibition comprised some 450 frames: 150 of them were designed for young people, 150 as part of the country-wide exhibition and 150 were part of the National Exhibition. Computers, offering philatelic information were at the disposal of the young visitors and a wireless station for radio hams. Beer Sheva is one of the oldest cities in Israel. It had a special importance in Biblical times,and it is from the Bible that we learn how the town was given its name which means “the Well of the Oath”. After a quarrel over wells between the shepherds of Abraham and Abimelech, they made a pact “wherefore he called that place Beer Sheva: because there they swore both of them” (Gen. 21:31). It is located in the wilderness 60 km southwest of Jerusalem; the southern most city in Biblical times. Seven wells have been located there, the largest measuring over 12 feet in diameter and 44 feet deep, the last 16 feet being cut through solid rock.

On the souvenir sheet appear various institutions of the present-day Beer Sheva, and on the stamp itself a sketch of Abraham’s Well that was drawn according to a copper engraving from the 17th Century. In the centre of the sheet is a sketch of “Yad Lebanim” House and around it, anti-clockwise, starting with the Beer Sheva City Hall building (right, above the stamp ) are: the Negev Brigade Monument (top right); the Soroka Hospital (top left); the City Conservatatory (left); a Synagogue; and a sketch of Beer Sheva Museum (bottom left).

The stamp with an information sheet are enclosed in a plastic protection sheet.