Nabataean kingdom

The Nabataean kingdom, also named Nabatea (Arabic: نبطية‎; many times spelled Nabatean), was an Arabic political state of the Nabataeans which existed during classical antiquity and was annexed by the Roman Empire in AD 106.

Geography

Located between the Sinai Peninsula and the Arabian Peninsula, its northern neighbour was the kingdom of Judea, and its south western neighbour was Ptolemaic Egypt. Its capital was the city of Petra in Jordan, and it included the towns of Bostra, Mada'in Saleh, and Nitzana.

Petra was a wealthy trading town, located at a convergence of several important trade routes. One of them was the Incense Route which was based around the production of both myrrh and frankincense in southern Arabia, and ran through Mada'in Saleh to Petra. From here the aromatics were distributed throughout the Mediterranean region.

History

Nabataean origins date from a time when they were nomadic pastoralists in the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula during Achaemenid Persian rule, around the 4th century BC.