The Negev, the desert that comprises the southern half of Israel, is a bridgehead between East and West, and has been the site of trade routes and civilizations since the 4th millennium B.C. For six years Nelson Glueck has been doing archaeological work in the Negev, and he has been able to restore to the map a whole series of civilizations that flourished and died over the centuries. This book, in popular fashion, shows the tremendous importance of the Negev as a passageway between continents. The Patriarchs, commencing with Abraham, knew it well, and the Israelites of the Exodus experienced bitter defeat in their attempt to enter the Promised Land directly through it from Sinai. The author emphasizes also the spiritual importance of the Negev in connection with the insights into the nature of God's moral imperatives achieved there by human being