Ezuz
Encyclopedia
Communal settlement (Israel)
A community settlement is a type of town in Israel. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the town's residents, who are organized in a cooperative, can veto a sale of a house or a business to an undesirable buyer....
in the western Negev
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
desert in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Named for Nahal Ezuz, a local stream, it is located to the south of Nitzana
Nitzana (village)
Nitzana is an educational youth village and communal settlement in the western Negev desert in Israel, adjacent to the Egyptian border. It is named for the nearby Nabataean city of Nitzana and gives its name to the Nitzana Border Crossing, formerly Auja al-Hafir.This settlement was founded in 1987...
and is part of the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council
Ramat HaNegev Regional Council
Ramat Negev Regional Council is a regional council in the Negev desert in Israel. The largest regional council in the country, its headquarters are located on Highway 40 between Mashabei Sadeh and Tlalim.-Places:...
. It is built at the place of a "kibbutz outpost on border of Negev ... abandoned after Six-Day War."
Founded in 1985, it has a population of 16 families. The major sources of income are tourism and art.
Two ancient wells, the Moshe Well and Aharon Well, were discovered under the settlement. Therefore the name of the place is also "Two Wells": in Hebrew: "Be'erotayim" and in Arabic: "Biriin". Today there is a small biblical park "Be'erotayim" around the 2 wells. Some connect it to the wells "be'erot" of Deuteronomy 10:6. Ezuz is not far from the historical, biblical Kadesh-Barnea (Deuteronomy 9:23) on the Egyptian side of the border.
"The Beerotayim area was partially surveyed by R.Cohen of the Israel Dept. of Antiquities ... in 1985. ... the Iron Age and Persian fortresses were excavated by Cohen in 1986."