Incense trade route

-Arab old town of al-Ula in Saudi Arabia was part of the Incense trade route -Arab cities in the Naqab, such as Subeita, were linked to the Mediterranean end of the ancient incense and spice trading routes. The Egyptians had traded in the Red Sea, importing spices, gold and exotic wood from the "Land of Punt" and from Arabia. Indian goods were brought in Arabian and Indian vessels to Aden. At the beginning of the 5th century BC, the demand for frankincense in the ancient world increased, so did the volume of traffic along the routes, and the trade of perfumes along it, especially frankincense and myrrh, gave it its name. In the Hellenistic and Roman world, frankincense was considered a valuable product whose value exceeded that of gold, and it was used for worship and for medical and cosmetic purposes. Frankincense was also used in Christian worship. ==Land routes==

Among the most important trading points of the incense trade route from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea was Gerrha in the Persian Gulf, reported by the historian Strabo to have been founded by Babylonian exiles as a Chaldean colony. Gerrha exercised influence over the incense trade routes across Arabia to the Mediterranean and controlled the aromatics trade to Babylon in the 1st century BC. The frankincense and myrrh trees were crucial to the economy of Yemen and were recognized as a source of wealth by its rulers. administrator. Archaeological inscriptions also speak of booty retrieved from the land of the mu-u-na-a-a, possibly Meunites mentioned in the Old Testament. The aromatics of Dhofar were shipped out from the natural harbour of Khor Rori towards the western inhospitable South Arabian coast. The caravans carried these products north to Shabwa and from there on to the kingdoms of Qataban, Saba', Ma'in, and Petra up to Gaza. There is also evidence to support that products from the Dhofar region were traded with the Sumerian-Magan people of Dilmun and Qatar as the Sumerian people used some of these resins for medicinal purposes. The tolls levied by the owners of wells and other facilities added to the overall cost of these luxury goods. ==Greco-Roman bypassing of land routes==

, 1st century AD. The Romans bypassed the land route in favour of the faster and safer searoute. The Nabateans built Petra, which stood halfway between the opening to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea at a point where the Incense Route from Arabia to Damascus was crossed by the overland route from Petra to Gaza. This position gave the Nabateans a hold over the trade along the Incense Route. According to a historian, "The South Arabs in protest took to pirate attacks over the Roman ships in the Gulf of Aden. In response, the Romans destroyed Aden and favoured the Western Abyssinian coast of the Red Sea." The monopoly of the Indian and Arab middlemen weakened with the development of monsoon trade by the Greeks through the discovery of the direct route to India (Hippalus), forcing the Parthian and Arabian middlemen to adjust their prices so as to compete on the Roman market with the goods now being bought in by a direct sea route to India. An earlier commentator on the significance of the trade, in terms of the connectivity of civilisations on both sides of the Red Sea from the time of the Queen of Sheba, was the British explorer Theodore Bent; it was Bent who identified the trading site of Moscha Limen in February 1895. Frankincense from Dhofar was collected at Moscha Limen. It was shipped to Qana and taken overland to Shabwa and further North to Najran, Mecca, Medina, Petra and to Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea. It was also shipped to Babylon and Palmyra via the Persian Gulf. The Roman trade with India kept increasing, and according to Strabo (II.5.12.): ==Decline==

According to a historian: in 602 to 629 At the end of the sixth century Isidore of Seville enumerated the aromatics still being imported into Visigothic Spain. Of aromatic trees (de arboris aromaticis) Isidore listed in his encyclopedia myrrh, pepper, cinnamon, amomum (cardamom?) and cassia; of aromatic herbs (de herbis aromaticis), nard, saffron, cardamom, would have arrived through the trade routes, others were available in Spain: thyme, aloes, rose, violet, lily, gentian, wormwood, fennel and others. . |leftFollowing the Persian–Roman Wars the areas under the Roman Byzantine Empire were captured by Khosrow I of the Persian Sassanian Dynasty. The Arabs, led by 'Amr ibn al-'As, crossed into Egypt in late 639 or early 640. This advance marked the beginning of the Rashidun conquest of Egypt used to secure trade with India by the Greco-Roman world since the Ptolemaic dynasty. Several centuries after the demise of the incense trade, coffee was responsible for bringing back Yemen to international commerce via the Red Sea port of al-Mocha. Finally, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in the 15th century, marking the beginning of Turkish control over the most direct trade routes between Europe and Asia. ==World Heritage status==

Oman section UNESCO's World Heritage Committee meeting on November 27, 2000, in Cairns, Australia attached World Heritage Site status to The Frankincense Trail in Oman. The official citation reads: Israel (Naqab) section The World Heritage Committee, headed by Themba Wakashe, recorded Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Naqab on UNESCO's World Heritage List on July 15, 2005. The official citation reads: have been found at excavated at Moyat Awad (mistakenly called Moa of the 6th c. CE Madaba Map), Qatzra, Har Masa, Mezad Nekarot, Sha'ar Ramon (Khan Saharonim), Mezad Ma'ale Mahmal and Grafon. Avdat continued to prosper as a major station along the Petra-Gaza road after the Roman annexation of Nabataea in 106 CE. ==See also==