Filling Bottles with Colorful Sand at the Lake

Filling small glass bottles with colorful sand one of the hallmarks of Timna Park activities. On  entering the Park, each visitor receives a bottle to fill with colorful sand, an activity that takes place in a shaded area near Timna Lake. This is a fun activity for all the family where together you can create beautiful shapes using the different colors create a unique souvenir to take home that will remind you of your visit to this historic and enchanting Park.

The colored sand indicates the rich and varied texture of the soil, and the colors in the sandstone rocks which are the result of various minerals. These minerals are soaked in sand and are even used in part as a bonding material between the quartz grains. Most of the colors are the concentrations of different compositions of iron oxide. Shades of blue and green, derived from various copper minerals, are common in Timna Park. In order to preserve nature and maintain the Park’s natural resources, the sand used for filling bottles is ordinary sand tinted in different colors.

Once you fill the bottle, tap it gently to compress the sand grains without mixing the different color layers. This creates an additional space at the top of the bottle, which must be filled to the brim with additional sand and then sealed. If you wish to create complex shapes use a toothpick to move the grains and create patterns inside the bottle…Not easy but certainly worthwhile!

The Park’s souvenir shop sells sand kits that include a bottle, cork, 4 bags of sand in different colors and a funnel…a perfect gift!