The Desert Cities of the Negev

The Desert Cities of the Negev is a UNESCO World Heritage Site the is comprised of four Nabatean cities of Shivta, Advat, Mamshit, and Haluza. I was able to visit the first three of these, which are all Israeli National Parks. These cities were built in the 1st century B.C. They were important posts on the Incense Route, which stretched 2,400 miles from the modern day countries of Oman and Yemen at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula on the Arabian Sea, through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, finally ending in the port of Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea.

The first of these cities I visited was Mamshit, which was also known as Memphis.
Mamshit is the best smallest of the cities, but is also the best preserved. Mamshit's era of prosperity was also shorter than that of the three cities I visited. The city ceased to be a popular trading post during the Roman occupation in the 1st century A.D., so they residents of the city became expert breeders, raising famed Arabian Stallions.
Many of the corrals used for these animals are visible today.
Mamshit is also famous for the ruins of it's two churches. Especially interesting are the mosaics located in the ruins of the 4th century church located in the Northeastern quarter of the complex.
The site today has a number of reconstructed buildings as well. The picture above shows a building that has been reconstructed so the visitor can see what the buildings would look like with a roof.
A number of stone archways have been reconstructed too. These served as entrances to buildings in some cases, decorate purposed in other, and as stabilizing force in others still.
There were a few other features about Mamshit that I really enjoyed. The first was the reconstructed dam on the dry river bed of the Mamshit River. When visitors travel to sights in the desert like this, many have trouble understanding how the people who lived in theses cities got water. The dam being where it is shows how the residents were able to use the topography of the area to their benefit. The dam also emphasizes that the area then was not as dry as it is today.
The second of the features unique to Mamshit was the reconstructed marketplace. I could almost envision what this might have looked like in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D.
Mamshit was located about 6km outside of Dimona. If Dimona sounds familiar but you can't place it- you are not alone. The city itself is not famous, but the site about 10 km west of the city is. It's the sight of Israel's alleged nuclear weapons program. Driving in to Dimona I passed a large facility to with sign that said "MILITARY AREA: NO PHOTOGRAPHS OR VIDEO ALLOWED". These signed appeared every couple hundred feet along the fence separating this road from the facility itself. I obliged and didn't take any pictures of it (honestly, I was petrified of what would happen if I did), so you'll have to settle for this picture (above) of the city of Dimona taken from Mamshit.

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I visited Shivta the next morning. Shivta, located a mere 12 km from the Egyptian border, has the most remote feeling of the three cities I visited. Where as Avdat is located dramatically of a high hilltop and Mamshit is located on the valley of the Mamshit River, Shivta's location is more on an arid plain.



Shitva is also the most disputed of the sites. For many years it was considered one of the Nabatean cities, although now many archeologists believe the majority of the buildings were built during the Byzantine period. The main courtyard area (pictured above) and it's Byzantine style baths and watering systems have lead to this speculation.
Shivta, like Mamshit, had impressive ruins of two churches. The first, the larger Byzantine Church, is thought top have been built in the late 3rd century A.D.
The second (Northern) church is though to have been built later, somewhere around the 6th or 7th Century A.D. for the purpose of being a center of worship for pilgrims making their way from Jerusalem down to St. Catherine's on the Sinai Peninsula.
The second church contains a number of carvings that are consistent with this era of Byzantine architecture.

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The most important of the cities is Avdat. Avdat was the most important city on the Petra-Gaza portion of the Spice Route. Unlike Mamshit, Avdat continued to prosper even after the Roman conquest of the mid first century A.D. When international trading became impossible, the residents Avdat switched to agriculture as their major source of income.
Wine-making was key to the economy of Avdat. Ruins of the elaborate wine press are located just outside of the main gates.
The main gates of the city are also impressive. This were first constructed in the 1st Century A.D. and improved upon during the Byzantine period.
Like both Mamshit and Shivta, Avdat contains the impressive ruins of a Byzantine era church.
Avdat was finally abandoned in the late Seventh century A.D. after and earthquake leveled much of the upper city.
The most striking feature of Avdat is it's location, perched dramatically on a enlevated plain overlooking expanses of the Negev.

Each of these sites were similar in many ways, but they were different enough to make them interesting despite the number of ruins I had already seen. I enjoyed Mashit the best, but that could have been partially because the day I visited there was a much more pleasant tempurature than the day I visted Shivta and Avdat. More on my blazing hot day in the Negev in my next post.