The large desert region of the central and eastern Sinai reaching north toward the Negev — not a settlement but a zone, and one the Bible never gives a boundary for. Israel arrives here at the end of Numbers 12, when the column leaves Hazeroth, and it becomes the staging ground for the worst decision in the book: from Paran the twelve spies are sent into Canaan and come back with the report that turns a two-year march into forty years (Numbers 13). Ishmael is said to have settled in Paran (Genesis 21:21), and Hagar's wanderings are placed at its edge — so the region is associated, before Israel ever camps there, with the son who was sent away. ⚠ Its extent is genuinely unknown; the coordinates here point at the central Sinai highlands as a marker for the region, not a located site.