ChristianAnswers.Net WebBible Encyclopedia Meaning: highland;
The name Elam is an Assyrian word meaning “high.” the son of
Shem (Gen. 10:22), and the name of the country inhabited by his
descendants (14:1, 9; Isa. 11:11; 21:2, etc.) lying to the east
of Babylonia, and extending to the shore of the Mediterranean, a
distance in a direct line of about 1,000 miles “The inhabitants
of Elam, or ‘the Highlands,’ to the east of Babylon, were called
Elamites. They were divided into several branches, speaking
different dialects of the same agglutinative language. The race
to which they belonged was brachycephalic, or short-headed, like
the pre-Semitic Sumerians of Babylonia. “The earliest Elamite
kingdom seems to have been that of Anzan, the exact site of
which is uncertain; but in the time of Abraham, Shushan or Susa
appears to have already become the capital of the country.
Babylonia was frequently invaded by the Elamite kings, who at
times asserted their supremacy over it (as in the case of
Chedorlaomer, the Kudur-L