The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert (Hebrew: מִדְבַּר יְהוּדָה‎ Midbar Yehuda, both Desert of Judah or Judaean Desert; Sahraa' Yahuda) is a desert in Israel and the West Bank that lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea. It stretches from the northeastern Negev to the east of Beit El, and is marked by natural terraces with escarpments. It ends in a steep escarpment dropping to the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. The Judaean Desert is crossed by numerous wadis from northeast to southeast and has many ravines, most of them deep, from in the west to in the east. The Judaean Desert is an area with a special morphological structure along the east of the Judaean Mountains.