This post is the direct consequence of the visit of the Al Ula exhibit I saw this sunday at the Arab World Institute in Paris, a beautiful archeological exploration of a valley of western Saudi Arabia largely focused on its pre-islamic period including the nabatean city of Hegra, where inscriptions from a garrison of the III Cyrenaica legion have been found, including a nice altar dedicated to emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Pictures I took in the exhibit are availlable in this Flickr Gallery. (my week-end in Paris also explains the shortness of the update, sorry...)
Without further ado, the update :
Camp of the 3rd cohors of the X Fretensis legion, Hegra, Arabia Nabatanea, April 248
The tribune Lucius Annius Pulcher would not be sorry to leave the damn place. Set outside the empire in the Nabatean city of Hegra, the camp of his cohors was a vexilation of the X Fretensis was a bit of an exception for Rome, born from the death of the old Nabatean kingdom in the time of the divine Trajan : too far to be integrated into the empire, the city of Hegra had remained autonomous while receiving a garrison of a few hundred mens from the legion based in Voltinia Capitolina.
Hegra was a strange place : important spot on the incense roads, it was at the head of a fertile valley some 23 leuga, around two days of march under the pitiless sun of the region, or rather under the frondaison of the palm trees that allowed other plants to grow without being burned by the rays of Phoebus.
Three main oasis dotted the valley, getting water from wells and underwater tunnels called Qanat by the locals, and the vexilation’s goal was to prevent them from being raided by desert nomads, which never happened…
In fact the tribune had never heard of any assignment as boring as that of Hegra. While the cliffside tombs, so similar to those of Petra, were impressive, you did not need to tour them more than once or twice.
Similarly discovering the oasis was an experience, as was learning of the secrets that made them so fertile, such as the numerous small channels conveying the water or the fact that vegetation was in fact planted in three layers, with the high palm trees providing shade and dattes, the medium height fruit trees and the vegetables, cereals or cotton plants at the lowest levels. But that too did not fill weeks and months of detachments, and he could not spend all of his time in the bath house built by his men, if only because there was not enough camel crap to burn to eat so much water…
Thus the orders that had arrived and which directed him to the port of Leuke Kome were welcome news even though he was not a fan of sea travel…
More on the exhibit :
https://www.imarabe.org/en/expositions/alula-merveille-d-arabie
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