This was the environment (and the very desert) that Israel wandered in, for those 40 years of wandering. We are near a 5000-year old copper mine, which was used by Egypt and likely worked by Israelite slaves.

It made me realize the difference between "desert-y" and Real Desert. I always thought I'd seen "real desert," but really: if there is any scraggle of anything green (or even a muddy green-brown), and there is ANYTHING alive, even if it's a tumbleweed, well that is easier desert than this desert. There was NOTHING. And I mean nothing. Just dust.