The four Nabatean towns of Haluza, Mamshit, Avdat and Shivta, along with associated fortresses and agricultural landscapes in the Negev Desert, are spread along routes linking them to the Mediterranean end of the incense and spice route. Together they reflect the hugely profitable trade in frankincense and myrrh from south Arabia to the Mediterranean, which flourished from the 3rd century BC until the 2nd century AD. With the vestiges of their sophisticated irrigation systems, urban constructions, forts and caravanserai, they bear witness to the way in which the harsh desert was settled for trade and agriculture.

Brief synthesis The Incense Route was a network of trade routes extending over two thousand kilometres to facilitate the transport of frankincense and myrrh from the Yemen and Oman in the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean. The four Nabatean towns of Haluza, Mamshit, Avdat and Shivta, with their associated fortresses and agricultural landscapes linking them to the Mediterranean are situated on a segment of this route, in the Negev Desert, in southern Israel. They stretch across a hundred-kilometre section of the desert, from Moa on the Jordanian border in the east to Haluza in the northwest. Together they reflect the hugely profitable trade in Frankincense from south Arabia to the Mediterranean, which flourished from the third century BCE until the second century CE, and the way the harsh desert was colonised for agriculture through the use of highly sophisticated irrigation systems. Ten of the sites (four towns - Haluza, Mamshit, Avdat and Shivta; four fortresses - Kazra, Nekarot, Makhmal, and Grafon; and the two caravanserai of Moa and Saharonim) lie along, or near to, the main trade route from Petra, capital of the Nabatean Empire in Jordan, to the Mediterranean ports. The town of Mamshit straddles the northern parallel route. Combined, the route, and the desert cities along it, reflect the prosperity of the Nabatean incense trade over a seven hundred year period, from the 3rd century BCE to the 4nd century CE. The towns were supported by extremely sophisticated systems of water collection and irrigation that allowed large-scale agriculture. These included dams, channelling, cisterns and reservoirs. Evidence of all these features is widespread around Avdat and central Negev, as are the remains of ancient field systems strung along riverbeds and hill slopes. The property displays an all-embracing picture of Nabatean town planning and building technology over five centuries. The combination of towns, and their associated agricultural and pastoral landscapes…