Avdat

Today we went to the ancient Nabatean city of Avdat, also known as Oboda, after the Nabatean king. It's part of a national park about 10 minutes from our house. We decided to buy an annual park pass. I tried to buy a family pass and was confused when the woman behind the counter told me to buy a couples pass, even though Miriam and Rebekah were right there. Turns out, in Israel, you buy a couples pass if you have two kids. Family passes are for those with more kids. (Most of the families we know here have 3 or 4, and much larger families are common.)

The city of Avdat was founded in the 3rd century BCE by the Natabeans as a station on the Spice Route. Camel caravans followed this desert route from Yemen to Petra, the Nabatean capital to transport highly valued spices. They also brought asphalt, , which the Egyptians used for mummification. From Petra, the spices were taken to the port of Gaza, and then by sea to outposts of the Roman empire.

Avdat was occupied through the 6th century CE. In 108 CE it was annexed to Rome. It became a Byzantine city from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE. It was a huge city with a fortress, churches, temples, houses, villas, an army camp, a pottery workshop, and an extensive bathhouse. Lest you think it was all suffering in the dirt, the bathhouse includes a dressing room, cold room, tepid room, two hot rooms and furnaces. The water came from a well 70m deep. The Nabateans had a high standard of living, even 2000 years ago in this most forbidding and inhospitable desert. Seems the Byzantines lived pretty well too--there are 5 winepresses from their time.

Avdat sits well above the valley floor. From the road, you can't tell how huge it is.

As Jay has written, the Nabateans were masters at water management. They collected rainwater in a series of cisterns, and this enabled them to live and farm in the desert.
Cisterns for collecting rain water

Note the channel running through the house for collecting rainwater.

This is a house from the Byzantine period.

This is one of five wine presses at Avdat, from the Byzantine period. People brought grapes from the surrounding vineyards. You see the storage cells around the perimeter. The grapes were stomped on the treading floor (Jay, Miriam and Rebekah re-enacting) and the juice then stored in caves to ferment.

One of the temples

There are graceful arches all over Avdat. Many are now freestanding, like this one, but I imagine they once supported roofs for temples. 

Arches for houses are more utilitiarian. Below, you see arches, fairly close together. The roof is made by laying flat slabs of rock across them. There was no wood available in the desert!

Decorative carving