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The 'Desert of Paran' or Wilderness of Paran (Hebrew מדבר פראן ''Midbar Par'an''), is quite likely the place where the Israelites spent part of their 40 years of wandering. King David spent some time in the wilderness of Paran after Samuel died (I Samuel, 25:1). It is also the place where Abraham's wife Hagar and his first son Ishmael were taken (Genesis 21) and it features in the opening lines of the Book of Deuteronomy.
Its modern-day name is Badiet et-Tih (according to Hertz), meaning "the desert of the wanderings". The Desert of Paran is situated in the northeastern part of the Sinai peninsula. The region is characterized by very little rainfall — less than 10 inches per year. Paran is often spelled "Pharan".
The Desert of Paran contains the Har Karkom plateau. A total of 218 sites, with approximately 1,300 rocks engraved with petroglyphs—aged between 13,000 and 1,500 years—was found in the desert and the surrounding valleys.
Today this area is still home to roaming Bedouins, but there is a town called Nekhl, the former capital of Sinai, built in 1516 to protect pilgrims crossing the region. ''Paran'' means abounding in foliage, or abounding in caverns.