What Is the Arava?
The biblical land of wandering
An archaeologist at the site of Timna in the Arava Valley. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.
Within the Bible, the name Arava often refers to the entire Jordan Rift Valley, the narrow stretch of land running from the Sea of Galilee all the way down to the Red Sea, passing through the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth. Despite this, the modern term is most often used to refer specifically to the southern half of the Rift Valley, otherwise known as the Wadi Arava. This southern section, which will be the focus here, is perhaps best known in the Hebrew Bible as the land where the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, a central area in the kingdom of biblical Edom.
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Wadi Arava
The Wadi Arava stretches around 100 miles from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea, ranging from about 6 to 25 miles wide. An arid desert, the Arava is bordered on the east by the visually captivating Edomite Highlands, which rise up from the Arava Valley as an imposing mountain range. On the western side, the Arava is flanked by the equally mountainous southern Negev Desert.
Although the valley forms a natural border between Israel and Jordan today, it was rarely a defined political border in antiquity. Instead, during the Iron Age (c. 1200–586 BCE), it frequently fell within the realm of Edom. During the time of the Exodus, the Arava would have been a familiar area for the Israelites, who wandered through it during their 40-year sojourn. The Arava would later be incorporated into the land of the Nabateans, whose capital city, Petra, was nestled deep in the Edomite Highlands to the east.
Standing within the remains of an ancient copper mine in Timna. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.
While few large biblical sites exist in the Arava Valley, historically it was a major center for copper production, including both the important mines of Faynan and Timna, which were major sources of the mineral during the Bronze and Iron Ages, when they were managed first by the Egyptians and then the kingdom of Edom.
A large male ibex resting in the Arava. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.
Despite its desert climate, a trip through the Arava still reveals a diverse array of both flora and fauna. Most prominent are acacia trees, as well as numerous species of shrubs and even the occasional flowering plant. As for animals, the valley is home to ibexes, gazelles, jackals, hyenas, and more.
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The word — spelled here as Arava — is spelled in Hebrew Ayin-Resh-Beth-He [`RBH], with diacritic marks in-between, so that a proper transliteration would be `aRaBhaH — that lowercase ‘h’ because the Beth/B is aspirated [‘Bh’], making it sound like the English letter ‘V’, hence this article’s transliteration as Arava, the same way that the letter Pe [‘P’] when aspirated is commonly transliterated as ‘Ph’, sounding like an English ‘F’.
Since the word `eReBh or Erev, means “evening” it seems likely that the `AraBhaH was named as such because it is to the East of where those who named it came to live, because the East is where the Evening originates, sweeping westward as the Sun sets in the West.
I must say that it kinda bothers me to see the letter Beth [‘B’] transliterated with the letter ‘V’, as is done here, since the same English letter ‘V’ is also commonly used to transliterate the Hebrew letter ‘Waw’, which SHOULD be pronounced like a ‘W’ but has come to be pronounced as a ‘V’ in more recent centuries, leading to some confusion when trying to find out which Hebrew word a badly transliterated into English word is. It has always bothered me to see the name Abraham transliterated as Avraham, even though the ‘B’ [Beth] in the Masoretic Text might be aspirated and, thus, pronounced like a ‘V’ — but then we could just as easily transliterate the name as ‘aBhRaHaM [Aleph-Beth-Resh-He-Mem], to let us know that the 2nd Hebrew consonant is a Beth (aspirated as ‘Bh’) rather than as a Waw/Vav.