The Ancient City of Avdat: A Stop on the Spice Route

My father is visiting us here in Yeruham for the week. Today I drove with him a half hour southeast of Yerham to Avdat, an ancient city founded in the third century BCE along the spice route which ran along the Arabian Peninsula from Yemen to the Mediterranean port of Gaza. Spices from Yemen--cinnamon, frankincense, cardamon, ginger, cassia, and others--were transported thorugh the desert to the port of Gaza from which spices and incense were then shiped throughout the Roman Empire. The Nabateans, an ancient people of Arab origin, developed this spice trade and established fixed settlements along the route. The journey took sixty-five days, and Avdat was station number sixty-two along the route. The map below shows the route from Yemen to the port of Gaza. The large peninsula in the middle is the Arabian peninsula. The small peninsula near the end of the route is the Sinai peninsula.

Here is a close up of the Sinai peninsula . The Negev is on the northeast border of the Sinai peninsula. The spice route crosses the Negev near the end of the route, ending in Gaza.

Here is a view of the desert surrounding Avdat though which the spice route passed.

In 106 CE, the Roman Empire annexed the Nabatean kingdom, including the spice route. The Romans transformed Avdat into a Roman city. This is a photograph of a fortress that the Romans built to protect the city.

On the way up to the city, there was a Byzantine house. (The Roman Empire split into two halves during the fourth century and the eastern half was known as the Byzantine Empire which lasted until the fifteenth century). As you can see, the house has many rooms.

Some of the rooms in the house are carved into the rock and are caves where archeologists believe produce and wine was stored. (They think the house was owned by a wine merchant.)

Here's a photo of one of the cave-rooms, which leads to other rooms further into the mountain.

Here is a view of the city fortress on top of the hill. Water was supplied by water channels that collected surface runoff that fed into a central cistern. You can see a channel in the foreground and the cistern in the middle of the photo.

Here's a closeup of the cistern.

Here's a view through one of the archways of the fortress.

The Romans also built two churches in the city. Here is one of them.

Here's a view of the city. You can see the streets. The city was destroyed by an earthquake in around 630 CE and abandoned.

This is an ancient Nabatean (well preserved).