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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1849435, member: 42773&quot;]Dan Gibson sums up the ancient trade route system quite well on Nabataea.net...</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;From our experience, trade routes can be funny things. Most westerners think in terms of major nations trading with other major nations through established and well-known routes. The eastern mindset is different. The Bedouin think in terms of being middlemen, conducting trade between two centers. This is significantly different. Camel caravans were making profit by bringing goods from one place to another, but they were not the official representatives of either center. The governments of these centers made money by taxing the caravans. The caravan owners made better profits when they avoided taxes. So trade routes were in constant flux as the caravans tried to avoid taxation centers. There were, and are, many ways to cross the desert. Each route has its positive and negative points.</p><p><br /></p><p>First, any caravan passing through a settled area would have to pay something to the sheik who controlled that area. Settled areas, however, were usually located around water spots, and caravans needed water. The Nabataeans grew in wealth and power, because they developed secret water collection systems in the desert, so that their caravans did not need to pass through areas where they might be taxed.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://nabataea.net/nroute.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://nabataea.net/nroute.html" rel="nofollow">http://nabataea.net/nroute.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The Bactrian camel, with its long range, would certainly have made a huge contribution to the caravans&#039; avoidance of centers of taxation.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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