Mamshit

1 · POSITION

Mamshit, ancient Mampsis, is the smallest of the Negev’s Nabataean towns and the best restored: a caravan stop on the Incense Road that later came under Byzantine rule. Its streets and houses are intact. The register holds it as the clearest picture of what a caravan town looked like from inside. [1, 2]

2 · A TRADE POST THAT BRED HORSES

Founded in the first century BC as a trade post, it grew into an agricultural centre whose people bred Arabian horses. It stood on the road between southern Arabia and the Mediterranean ports and was linked to Jerusalem by way of Beersheba and Hebron. [1, 2]

3 · THE HOUSES

Its once-luxurious houses show an architecture found in no other Nabataean town. Excavation found two churches — the western church of Saint Nilus with a mosaic floor of birds and Greek dedications — and a hoard of 10,500 silver coins, a 72-kilogram lead ingot and Greek papyri. [1, 2]

4 · THE END

The town declined in the sixth century, when the funding it received as a frontier city stopped. It was inscribed by UNESCO in June 2005 with Haluza, Avdat and Shivta. [1, 2]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ The Arabic name Kurnub is explained by one source as a drink of camel’s milk and date honey; the explanation is not tested here. [1]