Ezion-Geber

[2] According to the Book of Numbers, Ezion-Geber was a place first mentioned as an Israelite campsite toward the close of the nation's 40 years in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt.

[3] The "ships of Tharshish" of Solomon and Hiram started from this port on their voyage to Ophir.

It was the main port for Israel's commerce with the countries bordering on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

Ruins at Tell el-Kheleifeh were identified with Ezion-Geber by the German explorer F. Frank and later excavated by Nelson Glueck, who thought he had confirmed the identification, but a later re-evaluation dates them to a period between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE with occupation continuing possibly into the 4th century BCE.

[5] However, Marta Luciani argues that old and newly identified samples of Qurayya ware at the site indicate that it was occupied from the Late Bronze Age onwards.