Haluza

Elusa was an ancient city in the Negev in today's El- Khalasa in Israel.

The town is first mentioned in Claudius Ptolemy, appears on the tab Peutingeriana and in the letters of Libanius. Elusa was an important city of the Nabataeans on a caravan route from Petra to Gaza through the Negev. In the late Classical, Byzantine and early Islamic rule, it was the capital of the central Negev. In late antiquity bishops took of Elusa at the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon in part; to the diocese goes back the titular Elusa the Roman Catholic Church. Well in the 8th century Elusa was abandoned.

The city has not yet been systematically excavated. Test excavations and surveys have shown in addition to numerous grave stones and pottery from the Hellenistic to the Arab period remains of a temple, a theater and an aqueduct.