Throughout history the middle east has witnessed the rise and the fall of many kingdoms and empires that ruled the region with pride for certain era and then lost in a crucial battle to stronger forces which made them disappear. Only few of them, however, left visible evidence for their existence. Among those few are the Nabateans the founders and users of the “Spice and Incense Road”.
The Nabataens centered in modern Jordan. They formed a kingdom in the 4th century BCE or possibly earlier which lasted until 106 CE, representing about 450 years of existence. Their capital was Petra. They are most likely of the same ethnic origin (Semite probably) as other peoples of Arabia, using an Aramaic dialect as a language which changed to Arabic toward their disappearance in the pages of the history. The region of their travels was arid and water was of great importance. The solution to this concern was by building cisterns in the mountains to catch rain water and by a sophisticated system of irrigation based on terraced lots which can beautifully seen in the ruins of Avdat.
The Road was the route used by the Nabatean traders for trade caravans bringing spices and incenses to Mediterranean shore. Originally, as was mentioned, the Nabateans were nomads, who’s livelihood was supported by raiding neighboring kingdoms and caravans. As they established urban centers, they altered this approach and provided trade caravans with necessary services, securing their passage through their lands and providing them with a place to do business, in return for taxes paid.
Their loosely-controlled trading network, which centered on strings of oases that they controlled, where agriculture was intensively practiced in limited areas, and on the routes that linked them, had no securely defined boundaries in the surrounding desert.The most important products passing through their lands were myrrh, balsam and frankincense from southern Arabia and pepper, ginger, sugar and cotton from India. There are reports indicating that the trade routes stretched as far as China.
Traveling today along this route, tourists will find the remains of an ancient trade stations, water cisterns, and military forts that protected the caravans.
Examples of such stations are:
Avdat - located on a mountain ridge in the center of the Negev highlands, where the routes from Petra (in present-day Jordan) and Eilat converge and continue to the Mediterranean coast.
Shivta – on the borders between Israel and Egypt. Due to its location on intersection of main roads, Shivta became a very important commercial centre in the Byzantine period.
Halutza, also known as Halasa and Elusa - the only city (Polis) in the Negev desert is second in importance to Petra and is still to a large extent, covered under a layer of sand dunes. The remains of the city of Halutza are located just 12/19 miles/km southwest of Beer-Sheva
Mamshit(Memphis) – The city was important because it sat on Incense Road, on the route from the Idumean Mountains to the Arabah, which passed through Ma'ale Akrabim and continued on to Beer Sheva or to Hebron and Jerusalem.
Due to their historic importance, Unesco have granted the four cities in the Negev the joint status of a World Heritage Site.
It is possible, today, to pass through the Incense Road & other desert roads with guides and vehicles. For information (click here)
