En-gedi
Name meaning: "fountain of the goat, or kid"
En-gedi (fountain of the kid) was a celebrated oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea, roughly midway along its length, known for its powerful spring that cascades down the cliff face to the desert below. The lush vegetation sustained by this spring in an otherwise barren desert made En-gedi remarkable: the Song of Solomon compares the beloved to a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-gedi, and Ezekiel 47:10 uses it as one endpoint of the eschatological renewal of the Dead Sea region.
En-gedi served as a refuge for David during his flight from Saul, and it was there in one of the cave strongholds of the region that David spared Saul's life, cutting off only a piece of his robe when he could have killed him. The ancient site corresponds to Tell el-Jurn, above which the modern Kibbutz Ein Gedi operates. Its fresh water, warm springs, and subtropical micro-climate made it a uniquely fertile enclave, and its identification as an Amorite city of Hazazon-tamar in Genesis 14 connects it to the earliest historical stratum of Canaanite settlement in the region.