Avdat

Avdat Avdat or (Hebrew: עבדת ) is an Israeli national park in the Negev, in southern Israel. From the 4th century BC, here was a city of the Nabateans as an important stop on the spice route. The city of Avdat was over a thousand years until the Byzantine era. In today's National Park are among others the remains of a Nabataean military camp, two church ruins, some graves and the remains of a bath house.

Geographical location

The Avdat National Park can be reached via the Israeli Highway 40 and is located about 600 meters above sea level, above the Wadi Zin, in a mountainous area between the villages of Sede Boker and Mitzpe Ramon, in the middle of the Negev Desert.

History of the city Awdat

The Nabataeans founded in the 4th century BC the city Awdat as way station on the spice route, on which, besides spices and cosmetics and other valuable goods from the Far East on the Arabian Peninsula, the city of Petra and the Negev desert to the port cities of the Mediterranean were delivered. The pervading trade caravans traveled Arava over Awdat further Mamschit, Nizana up to the ancient Gaza, the main export port in the region. His name is said to have Awdat the king Oboda II (also known as Obodas II ), who lived at the beginning of the Roman period were obtained. Historical sources from that time report, King Oboda II, who was worshiped as a god, he was buried in Avdat. From this time, the remains of a temple, a ceramics workshop, a military camp and residential building remains were found. In the 1st century AD, the economic center of gravity shifted to agriculture. The Roman Empire annexed the Nabataean kingdom in 106 AD, and Avdat was a fortified frontier town of the Roman Empire. In the Byzantine period ( 4th to 7th century AD) Avdat flourished. It originated magnificent churches and other buildings, including water cisterns. At that time, the agricultural area has been expanded, and on the slopes of the city of caves carved into the rock, which served for the storage of agricultural products and as workshops. With the end of the Byzantine period, the entry of foreign nomadic peoples and the Arab conquest of the region began from 636 Forfeiture of Avdat.

In 2005, Avdat was declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site.