The History Room
HEGRA, AN ANCIENT CITY IN SAUDI ARABIA UNTOUCHED FOR MILLENNIA, MAKES ITS PUBLIC DEBUT
Herga was the second city of the Nabataean Kingdom- a place most likely never heard of. But most have heard of the more famous Petra, which lies a few hundred miles north. This Kingdom was absorbed into the Roman Empire.
Once a thriving international trade hub, the archeological site of Hegra (also known as Madain Saleh) has been left practically undisturbed for almost 2,000 years. But now for the first time, Saudi Arabia has opened the site to tourists. Astute visitors will notice that the rock-cut constructions at Hegra look similar to its more famous sister site of Petra, a few hundred miles to the north in Jordan. Hegra was the second city of the Nabataean kingdom, but Hegra does much more than simply play second fiddle to Petra: it could hold the key to unlocking the secrets of an almost-forgotten ancient civilization.
While Hegra is being promoted to tourists for the first time, the story that still seems to get lost is that of the ancient empire responsible for its existence. The Nabataeans are arguably one of the most enigmatic and intriguing civilizations that many have never heard of before.
The Nabataeans were desert-dwelling nomads turned master merchants, controlling the incense and spice trade routes through Arabia and Jordan to the Mediterranean, Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia. Camel-drawn caravans laden with piles of fragrant peppercorn, ginger root, sugar and cotton passed through Hegra, a provincial city on the kingdom’s southern frontier. The Nabataeans also became the suppliers of aromatics, such as frankincense and myrrh, that were highly prized in religious ceremonies.“The reason why they emerged and they became new in ancient sources is that they became wealthy,” says Laila Nehmé, an archeologist and co-director of the Hegra Archeological Project, a partnership between the French and Saudi governments that is excavating sections of the site. “When you become wealthy, you become visible.”
The Nabataeans prospered from the 4th century B.C. until the 1st century A.D., when the expanding Roman Empire annexed and subsumed their huge swath of land, which included modern-day Jordan, Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, and parts of Saudi Arabia, Israel and Syria. Gradually, the Nabataean identity was lost entirely. Forgotten by the West for centuries, Petra was “rediscovered” by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812, though local Bedouin tribes had been living in the caves and tombs for generations. Perhaps it could be said that Petra was truly seen by most Westerners for the first time a century and a half later thanks to its starring role as the set for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989.Obscure though they might be to us now, the Nabataeans were ancient pioneers in architecture and hydraulics, harnessing the unforgiving desert environment to their benefit. Rainwater that poured down from the craggy mountains was collected for later use in ground-level cisterns. Natural water pipes were built around the tombs to protect their facades from erosion, which have kept them well preserved thousands of years after their construction.
“These people were creative, innovative, imaginative, pioneering,” says Graf, who has been researching the Nabataeans since he unexpectedly unearthed some of their pottery in 1980 on an excavation in Jordan. “It just blew my mind.”
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Originally Posted by Garden House Queen
