Ancient city of Arad

Arad, Arath, Adraa or Adra was a city of southern Palestine, about nineteen mile south of Hebron. It is named after the biblical Canaanite town located at Tel Arad. The territory of Arad included the desert of Sin.

It was a fort built in the late eleventh or early tenth century BC as an administrative and military outpost.

It was an ancient city on whose inhabitants drove back the Israelites as they attempted to penetrate from Kadesh into Canaan, but were eventually subdued, along with the other southern Canaanites.

The king of this city early distinguished himself as a bitter and powerful enemy of the Israelite. It was first mentioned in Num 21:1-3 which reports that the Canaanite king of Arad resisted Israel’s passage through his territory.

The fortress of Arad was built on top of a small settlement in the ninth century BC. The fortress was destroyed and rebuilt five times before finally being destroyed early in the sixth century BC with the destruction of the kingdom Judah by the Babylonians.
Ancient city of Arad