En Gedi in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("fountain of the kid or goat".) A town W. of the Dead Sea (Ezekiel 47:10), in the wilderness of Judah (Joshua 15:62). "The wilderness of Engedi" is explained as" the rocks of the wild goats" (1 Samuel 24:4). Abounding in caves on the road to Jerusalem where David found Saul. Originally Hazazon Tamar, "the felling of the palm," palm groves being then around though now none remain (2 Chronicles 20:2). About the middle of the western side of the sea. The fountain Ain Jidy is about 500 ft. above the plain and Dead Sea, and 1500 ft. below the top of the cliffs, bursting from the limestone rock down the deep descent amidst banks of acacia, mimosa, and lotus. The temperature at the spring head on a cool day Conder found 83 Fahr. (Israel Exploration, August, 1875.) When full it crosses the plain direct to the sea; but most of the year it is absorbed in the dry soil. The four kings of whom Chedorlaomer was chief attacked the Amorites here, and were in turn attacked by the five kings of Canaan in the adjoining vale of Siddim. The route of the Moabites and Ammonites invading Jehoshaphat was by Engedi, and still the marauding hordes from Moab pass round the S. of the Dead Sea along the western shore to Ain Jidy, and then westward wherever hope of plunder presents itself. The Song of Solomon (Song of Solomon 1:14) celebrates Engedi's vineyards and clusters of "camphire," i.e. hennah flowers, white and yellow softly blended, wherewith Jewish maidens decked themselves.