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Article: Avdat: A local stop on the ancient Arabian peninsula spice route
- Article from:
- Jerusalem Post
- Article date:
- August 25, 1995
- Author:
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HAIM SHAPIRO
Jerusalem Post
08-25-1995
WHO would want to see Avdat when there's Petra?
Both sites were settled by the Nabateans, as stations on the spice route from the Arabian peninsula, and later developed by the Byzantines. Avdat, however, is modest in comparison to Petra, the famed capital whose magnificent buildings were carved out of red rock.
In fact, it is only after seeing Petra, Avdat and perhaps other spice-route stations, such as Mamshit and Nitzana, that one can imagine the incredible commerce that once traversed the Negev.
Avdat itself, a wind-swept hilltop in the midst of stark desert, is on the Beersheba-Mitzpe Ramon highway, some 60 kilometers south of Beersheba. (The ...