Elim in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("strong trees".) Probably the lovely valley of Gharandel. In the rainy season a torrent flows through to the Red Sea. The water is in most seasons good, and even the best on the journey from Cairo to Sinai. Israel found at Elim 12 wells (i.e. "natural springs") and 70 palmtrees, and encamped by the waters; their stage next after Marah, now Huwara. A few palms still remain, dwarfs and trunkless, gnarled tamarisks and acacias, the sole relics of the grove that once flourished on this oasis of the W. side of the peninsula. Israel stayed here a long time; for they did not reach the wilderness until two and a half months after leaving Suez, finding water and pasture abundant in the intermediate district. Laborde makes wady Useit to be Elim, the second wady which Israel going from N.W. to S.E. along the coast would reach after Gharandel. Lepsius makes the fourth wady, reached by Israel, namely, wady Shubeikeh, in its lower part Taiyibeh, to be Elim (Exodus 15:27; Numbers 33:9.)