Kibroth Hattaavah or Kibroth-hattaavah (Hebrew: קִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה, graves of craving) is one of the locations which the Israelites passed through during their Exodus journey, recorded in the Book of Numbers.
[1] It was at this place, according to the biblical narrative, that the Israelites loudly complained about constantly eating only manna, and that they had enjoyed a much more varied diet, of fish, vegetables, fruit and meat, when they lived in Egypt;[2] the text states that this led Moses, in despair, to cry out to Yahweh,[3] who then promised them so much meat that 'they would vomit it through their nostrils'.
[4] The narrative goes on to tell of a huge number of quails brought by the winds to both sides of the Israelite encampment, which the people gathered.
[6] According to biblical scholars, this is merely an aetiological myth to theologically justify a pre-existing place name;[7] a number of biblical scholars have proposed that the graves (kibroth) in the name kibroth-hattaavah actually refers to a stone circle or cairns,[8] or to recently discovered Chalcolithic (~fourth Millennium BC) megalithic burial sites known as nawamis, meaning mosquitos, which are unique to the central Sinai Peninsula and southern Negev.
The traditional identification of Mount Sinai as one of the mountains at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula would imply that Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah was/were probably in the Wadi Murrah, about 30 miles north-east of the southern tip, and exactly a day's journey from 'Ain Hudherah; in this area, at the Erweis el-Ebeirig, an ancient encampment has been found,[15] but it dates to the Early Bronze Age (the early third millennium BC).