Karkaa

Karkaa (meaning floor or bottom) was a place on the southern boundary of Judah, mentioned in Joshua 15:3 as a landmark in the boundary description running from the Scorpion Pass toward Azmon and the Brook of Egypt. It lay roughly midway between the Ascent of Akrabbim and Azmon in the Negev wilderness, and served as one of the reference points delineating Judah's southernmost extent.

Beyond this single boundary reference, Karkaa is entirely unknown in the biblical narrative and has not been positively identified by archaeology. Its name suggesting a flat or level area—perhaps a basin or valley floor visible as a landmark from the surrounding ridge terrain—is consistent with the kind of natural feature used to fix boundary lines in the Negev. The extreme south of Judah where Karkaa lay was arid desert transitioning toward the Sinai peninsula, inhabited by only the most marginal agricultural communities and traversed by caravan routes connecting Canaan to Egypt.