'ABDE'. - Arabized name of the ancient Nabataean 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 Bersabea and
35 km. north-east of Cades, on the plateau (measuring 1000 × 800 m.) of a rocky hill. It was built by the Nabataeans 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 subsequently deified.
A Roman fortress was superimposed upon it, followed (in the 5th or 6th century) by a Byzantine city with about 300 dwellings in the ancient caves of the necropolis, a fortified monastery, and two churches, beneath the ruins of which lie the remains of the Nabataean temple probably dedicated to Oboda. On the south-eastern side of the hill, among 24 tombs, stands out a vast hypogeum decorated with pagan symbols, 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 nine-pointed star about 70 m. in diameter, and on the adjacent rock twelve votive sandals and Nabataean graffiti engraved by pilgrims. The place of worship was sacred to the morning star, greatly venerated by the ancient Arabs under the name al-'Uzza.
The Greek inscriptions of the site bring us to 1 July 581, a time when the incursions of nomads were devastating the remote city, situated as a guard over the roads between the Mediterranean, the Dead Sea, and the Gulf of Allat. The Muslim invasion destroyed 'Abde', now uninhabited.