The Leopard Temple () is the name of an archaeological site of a 7,000 year old temple in the Uvda basin of the

Negev The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

in southern Israel. The name refers to the

Arabian leopard The Arabian leopard (''Panthera pardus nimr'') is the smallest leopard subspecies. It was described in 1830 and is native to the Arabian Peninsula, where it was widely distributed in rugged hilly and montane terrain until the late 1970s. Today, t ...

, which is no longer found in Israel. The site was investigated by Uzi Avner and Ora Yogev on behalf of the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

. It was first discovered in the early 1980s by an

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

(IDF) tank that passed near it; the site was accidentally destroyed by IDF tanks in the late 1980s during a military exercise.

References

{{Authority control, qid=Q6758842 Archaeological sites in Israel