Geography

The ruins of Khirbet Ader are located on a hilltop (approximately 3,100 feet above sea level) in the Kerak plateau, about 12 miles east of the Dead Sea. The site was located on the King’s Highway, one of the main caravan routes in antiquity. The region is surrounded by a large expanse of fertile agricultural land supplied by a small wadi, Ḥammet el-Ḥemrī, a branch of the Wadi Mujib, the Arnon River of the Bible (Cleveland, “Excavation of the Conway High Place,” 79).