ABDE'. - Arabized name of the ancient Nabatean city of "Palaestina tertia" Eboda (Ptolemy, V, 16, 4) or Oboda (Stephen of Byzantium, Onomast., 525, 23), 50 km. as the crow flies south of Beersheba and 35 km. northeast of Kadesh, on the plateau (measuring 1000 × 800 m.) of a rocky hill. It was built by the Nabateans in the 1st century B.C. around the tomb of their king Oboda II (hence the name), who probably died in 47 B.C. and was later deified.
A Roman fortress was superimposed upon it, then (5th or 6th century) a Byzantine city with about 300 dwellings in the ancient caves of the necropolis, with a fortified monastery and two churches, beneath whose ruins are the remains of the Nabatean temple probably dedicated to Oboda. On the southeastern flank of the hill, among 24 tombs, a vast hypogeum decorated with pagan symbols stands out, in which Fr. Vincent sees the tomb of Oboda. To the south is a high place with an altar formed in the rock by an enormous 9-pointed star about 70 m. in diameter, and on the rock beside it 12 votive sandals and Nabatean graffiti carved by pilgrims. The place of worship was sacred to the morning star, much venerated by the ancient Arabs under the name of al-'Uzza.
The Greek epigraphs of the place lead us to 1 July 581, a time when the raids of the nomads were devastating the remote city, placed as a guard over the roads between the Mediterranean, the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. The Muslim invasion destroyed 'Abde', today uninhabited.
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Antonino Romeo