Horites or Horim were a cave-dwelling people mentioned in the Torah

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 (Genesis 14:6, 36:20, Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy

The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...

 2:12) inhabiting areas around Mount Seir

Mount Seir

Mount Seir formed the south-east border of Edom and Judah, it may also echo the older historical border of Egypt and Canaan.-Tanakh:Mount Seir is specifically noted as the place that Esau made his home . It was named for Seir, the Horite, whose sons inhabited the land...

. They have been identified with Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

 references to Khar

Khar

Khar may refer to:* Khar, Punjab is a town in the Punjab Province, Pakistan* Khar, Bajaur is a town in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan...

(formerly translated as Harri), which concern a southern region of Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...

. Despite the widespread influence of the Hurrians, a more northerly people, these were probably not the same as the Horites.

According to the Torah account, the Lord had driven them out before the Edomites, descendants of Abraham, some time before the Exodus

The Exodus

The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...

. Their ancestor is Hori son of Lotan

Lotan

Lotan or Lawtan is the seven-headed sea serpent or dragon of Ugaritic myths. He is either a pet of the god Yamm or an aspect of Yamm himself; the cosmic ocean of myth is often known as a great stream. In the Hebrew analogue Lotan is who was also known as Yam the Leviathan. He represents the mass...

 son of Seir

Seir

Seir . It is sometimes used as an alternative term for a goat, as in Seir La'Azazel .* Seir - "Prince" in Ancient Egyptian, a name used by the Egyptians to refer the god of the dead known to the Greeks as Osiris...

 whose pre-Edomite descendants, "dukes of the Horites in the land of Seir", are listed in Gen. 36:20-29 and 1 Chronicles 1:38-42. One of these dukes, Zibeon, is described as a Hivite. Though Seir's own ancestry is never directly specified the rabbinical tradition clearly derives from the part of his genealogy which corresponds with that given for Esau

Esau

Esau , in the Hebrew Bible, is the oldest son of Isaac. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and by the minor prophets, Obadiah and Malachi. The New Testament later references him in the Book of Romans and the Book of Hebrews....

's Hivite wife (Oholibamah bat Anah bat Zibeon ben Seir) in Gen. 36:2.

As for the Horites being the same as the Khar in the Egyptian inscriptions, see The International standard Bible encyclopedia, page 1421. James Orr, 1915.