Bearded male head
The early Nabataeans disliked houses, believing that buildings and immobility would enslave them to a more powerful people. For reasons not fully understood, they shifted from a pastoral life to an urban existence, settling in Petra sometime in the third century BC. Goatskin tents gave way to more permanent and elegant residences protected within a remote fortress of rock. "This place is exceedingly strong but unwalled, and it is two days' journey from the settled country," wrote the Greek historian Diodorus.
Youthful male head
Starting as a defensive stronghold where the Nabataeans safeguarded precious goods and their families, Petra evolved into a commercial center by the first century BC. By then the Nabataeans had acquired control of the caravan trade of incense and other luxuries to the Mediterranean region. As business grew, merchants needed a centralized hub. Petra was strategically located at the intersection of two commercial routes. One extended west from Asia, and the other headed north from southern Arabia.
