The river Paran (Nahal Paran) has the longest valley in the Negev. Initially flowing north, it turns east at the point where it is crossed by the road from Elat to Beersheba via Gerofit and Avdat and ends in the Arava depression to the south of the Dead Sea.
Waterless almost all year, the Paran turns into a "raging torrent" (the meaning of its Arabic name Wadi el-Jirafi) in the rainy season. Where it is crossed by the Elat-Beersheba road the wadi is a wild erosion valley, while lower down, where it is traversed by the road from Elat to the Dead Sea, it is wide and flat.
From the moshav of Paran (founded 1971), near this road, the hills of Edom can be seen to the east, with the characteristic silhouette of Djebel Hor (Mount of Aaron; 1,386m/4,547ft), 60km/37mi away above the Nabataean capital of Petra in Jordan.
History
The valley of the Paran and the surrounding desert, the wilderness of Paran, were an important staging-point in the Israelites' journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. From Sinai they came into the wilderness of Paran (Numbers 10,12), from which Moses sent out scouts, who entered the land of the Canaanites and came to Hebron. From there the Israelites journeyed farther north into the desert of Zin (Numbers 20,1), which extends between the spring of En Avdat and the Arava depression. The king of Edom would not allow them to pass through his land, so they turned east, crossed the Arava and came to Mount Hor, on the summit of which Moses' brother Aaron died and was buried (Numbers 20,22-29); his tomb on Djebel Hor, above Petra, is still venerated. The Israelites then traveled on through the land of Moab, on the east side of the Jordan, and came into the land of the Ammonites, where Moses died, having been vouchsafed a sight of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 34). In his final blessing of the Israelites Moses named Paran: "The Lord came from Sinai ...; he shined forth from mount Paran" (Deuteronomy 33,2).
Read More
Read Less
