Shivta

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Shivta

Shivta or Sobota or Subeitah or Subaytah , is an archaeological site

Archaeological site

An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record...
in the Negev Desert of Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
, east of Nitzana

Nitzana (Nabatean city)

Nitzana is an ancient Nabataeans city located in the Negev desert in Israel close to the Egyptian border. It may have been a station on the eastern branch of the ancient Incense Route, serving pilgrims and merchants travelling to Sinai or central Egypt....
. Until 1948, there was a Palestinian village of the same name, Subaytah

Subaytah

Subaytah was a Palestinian village located just to the south of the archaeological site of the same name, Shivta. Its inhabitants were forced into exile in 1948....
, located just to the south of the archaeological site.

Long considered a classic Nabataean town and terminal on the ancient spice route, archaeologists are now considering the possibility that the town was actually a Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
agricultural colony and a way station for pilgrims

Pilgrims

Pilgrims, or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts....
en route to the Santa Catarina, Egypt

Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai

Saint Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt. The monastery is Greek Orthodox Church and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site....
, located on the supposed site of Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai

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Shivta or Sobota or Subeitah or Subaytah , is an archaeological site

Archaeological site

Israel

Nitzana (Nabatean city)

Subaytah

Byzantine Empire

Pilgrims

Pilgrims, or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts....
en route to the Santa Catarina, Egypt

Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gebel Musa or Jabal Musa by the Bedouin, is the name of a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula....
.

The new assessment of Shivta is based on an analysis of the irrigation system found at the site, which bears parallels to Byzantine structures elsewhere. Until now, the preponderance of Byzantine ruins were believed to be the remains of a monastic community that established itself on the ruins of an earlier Nabataean town.

The Shivta site contains three Byzantine churches, a wine-press, residential areas and administrative buildings. After the Arab conquest in the 7th Century CE, Shivta began to decline in population. It was finally abandoned in the 8th or 9th Century CE.

Shivta was declared a world heritage site

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 Sovereign state which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term....
by UNESCO

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945....
on June 2005.

Shivta

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