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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 25450557, member: 128351&quot;]The Nabataean Kingdom was not just Petra. Petra was its capital, its main religious centre and commercial hub since the late 4th c. BC, Nabataeans being still nomads. But their kingdom grew and expanded, in the 1st c. BC it even included Damascus for some time. Under Aretas IV, c. 9 BC, it annexed Hegra in the Hijaz, c. 300 km NW of Yathrib (al-Madinah).&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Hegra, in Saudi Arabia, is a scenic Nabataean city. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1629009[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>It used to be an oasis. Today the rock-tombs all around the city are all that&#039;s left standing and visible. It was already like this in Muhammad&#039;s time, in the 7th c.: people thought these tombs were the rock-cut houses of the people of Thamud, exterminated by Allah for killing his sacred camel. The story of al-Hijr (Hegra) is told in the Quran: these rock-cut houses full of human bones are a warning for people, for Allah will get you, even if you try to hide in a bunker ! </p><p><br /></p><p>Hegra remained Nabataean for a little more than one century, from c. 9 BC to 106 AD. Then it was occupied by the Romans, who had a small garrison and even an <i>adjutor tabulariorum</i>, an imperial freedman for finances. The city seems to have been completely abandoned c. 400 AD and was never settled again. </p><p><br /></p><p>The place where the urban settlement once stood is a barren desert. Nothing to see, not even a column drum... But it&#039;s covered with pottery shards and coins. Hundreds of coins have been recovered from Hegra since the 19th c., picked on the surface while just walking, or found in archaeological excavations. There are 3 kinds of coins : Lihyanite coins dating back from the 4th to the 1st c. BC, Nabataean coins of Aretas IV, Malichus II and Rabbel II, Roman coins from the 1st to the 4th c, the latest of which being a small AE4 of Honorius. The Nabataean century had obviously been Hegra&#039;s golden age : it lasted just a little more than 1 century but more Nabataean coins have been found there than Lihyanite and Roman coins taken together, which represent more than 6 centuries ! </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1629017[/ATTACH]</p><p>A silver sela&#039; (drachm) of Aretas IV, dated year 4 (6/5 BC). Picked from the surface at Hegra. (Not my coin ...)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1629018[/ATTACH]</p><p>A very worn Alexandrian AE coin of Cleopatra, found on the ground at Hegra too... (not my coin ...)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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