II. ELAM, a City of Edom situated upon the Elanitick Gulph of the Red Sea. Eusebius places it at no more than ten miles distance eastward from Petra. David having subdued the Edomites, made himself master of Elam. The Edomites having recovered their liberty in the reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, they continued independent till the time of Uzziah or Azariah, who retook Elam from them, 2 Kings xiv. 22. But he did not long preserve this conquest. Rezin, King of Syria, took it once more from Uzziah, and drove the Jews out of it. Elam is to be met with in the Ancients under the name of Elana, Elath, Elas, Ælan, or Elon. Strabo places it at the distance of twelve hundred and sixty furlongs from Gaza, which make about an hundred and fiftyseven thousand paces. This difference is small for so great a distance. St. Jerom says, that the City of Elam lay at the extreme part of Palestine. Procopius also places it at the eastern extremity of Palestine. In the Councils we find some Bishops of Elam among those of the third Palestine.
Abulfeda gives us the following account of this City. He says, it was formerly a small town with some fruitful lands about it: at present it is no more than a Tower, which serves as an habitation for a Governour, who depends upon the Governour of Grand Cairo. There is no such thing there now as fields sown with corn. Formerly there was a fort built in the sea, but at present it is all in ruins. The commanding Officer lodges in the tower we mentioned, which is built upon the shore. Elam is situated over-against Colzum; Elam being to the east, and Colzum to the west. Mount Sina is between both. Abulfeda places Elam in the fifty-fifth degree of longitude, and in the twenty-ninth degree of latitude. He cites Almostarcus, who sets it down in the fiftysixth degree of longitude and forty minutes, and in the twenty-eighth degree of latitude and fifty minutes.