Negba Open Air Museum, Open-air museum in Yoav Regional Council, Israel

The Negba Open Air Museum is an outdoor exhibition in Yoav Regional Council displaying traditional buildings, tools, and objects from early settlement times. The grounds include reconstructed towers and settlements as well as an original water tank and a captured military vehicle from wartime.

Kibbutz Negba was founded on 12 July 1939 by the "Givat Ganim" nucleus of Hashomer Hatzair members from Poland, joined by Polish members of the "Shamir" nucleus, most of whom came from Romania, with help from Kibbutz Givat Brenner. It was then the southernmost Jewish point in Palestine apart from Sodom on the Dead Sea. In the 1948 war the kibbutz withstood about three months of Egyptian attacks with aircraft, tanks and artillery; after Operation Yoav and the capture of the Iraq Suwaydan police fort on 9 November 1948 its members began rebuilding the ruins.

The museum takes its name from the kibbutz, founded on 12 July 1939 by the "Givat Ganim" nucleus of Hashomer Hatzair members from Poland, joined by Polish members of the "Shamir" nucleus, most of whom came from Romania. A reconstruction of a stockade-and-tower settlement stands near the kibbutz gate, recalling the method used to establish Negba.

Plan for a slow pace as exhibits are spread across the grounds. The site is mostly open, so pick your timing to avoid intense heat or rain.

The Egyptian tank was halted south of the kibbutz on 12 July 1948; the vehicle now facing the monument is a Lokust M22 placed there as a substitute. The water tower still carries the shell holes punched into it during the three months of Egyptian attacks.