Metsad Hatseva, Archaeological site in Southern District, Israel

Metsad Hatseva is an archaeological mound at the Ein Hazeva junction in the northern Arava, 40 km south of the Dead Sea. Its best-preserved level is a Judean fortress of the 9th–8th centuries BCE, about 100 m square, with walls still standing up to 2 m and a fortified four-chambered gate 13 m by 15 m in the northeast corner. A Roman castrum of 46 m by 46 m, with projecting towers and 2.4 m walls, was later built over a Nabataean caravanserai.

A small fortress was built in the 10th century BCE, followed by a large 100-by-100-metre fortress in the 9th–8th centuries BCE, attributed to the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, who strengthened the kingdom's borders. It was probably destroyed by the earthquake of 760 BCE. A smaller fortress replaced it in the 7th–6th centuries BCE and fell with Jerusalem in 586 BCE. After about 500 years of abandonment, the Nabataeans occupied the site and the Romans built a 46-by-46-metre fort.

The site reveals evidence of Edomite settlement and trade with neighboring regions through pottery and ritual objects discovered during excavations. These findings demonstrate how communities here connected to broader ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern networks.

The site lies beside the Ein Hazeva junction, where the road down from Maale Aqrabbim meets the road from the Dead Sea. The spring itself is dry after 1960s Mekorot drilling lowered the water table; only the large tamarisk marks its spot, and it is irrigated today. The Iron Age wall foundations, two grain silos and the four-chambered gate stand in the open, with the Roman wall line partly rebuilt.

The large Iron Age fortress was about 100 by 100 metres, one of the biggest in the Negev, with its north-east corner taken by a gate of 13 by 15 metres. Its casemate wall was built as front and back walls with the space between filled with earth, not used as rooms as at Beersheba. The same plan appears at Tell el-Kheleifeh near Aqaba.