Rehovot-in-the-Negev (English), from Rehovot ba-Negev [he] (רחובות בנגב, modern Hebrew name), derived from Khirbet Ruheibeh (Arabic, 'Ruheibeh Ruins'), is an archaeological site in the Wadi er-Ruheibeh area of the central Negev in Israel,[1] containing the remains of an ancient town.

Apparently founded in the first century CE by the Nabateans, it was a thriving city by the fifth century during the Byzantine period, when it grew to more than 10,000 inhabitants, thanks to its being on the Arabian incense trade route.

[citation needed] By population, Rehovot-in-the-Negev was the second largest of the Byzantine-period "Negev towns".

[3] Easton's Bible Dictionary, published in 1893-97, tentatively associated the well dug by Isaac in Gerar and called by him Rehoboth (see Genesis 26:22) with a site "in Wady er-Ruheibeh, some 20 miles south of Beersheba.

"[4] Modern archaeology, however, dismisses the identification of Ruheibeh (Rehovot-in-the-Negev) with Isaac's Rehoboth, because the site contains no remains older than the Roman period.