Numbers 10:12

12. The wilderness of Paran Paran literally signifies a region abounding in caverns. It corresponds in general outline with the desert Et-Tih, a wide stretch of hilly limestone region elsewhere known as “the Desert,” lying north of the Sinaitic triangle, its southern boundary not being a straight line running east and west, but a concave crescent of mountains about one hundred and twenty miles long. The surface of this extensive desert is a chalky formation covered with coarse gravel, mixed with black flint and drifting sand, dipping southward. See Genesis 21:21, note; Exodus 15:22-27, introductory note. The Paran proper, or definite spot to which the name is applied, (Deuteronomy 1:1,) is by Prof. Palmer and other eminent geographers identified with Wady Feiran, closely resembling it in sound.