On the Road to the Queen of Sheba

Throughout antiquity, the lucrative Arabian spice trade was carried on the backs of camels, traveling thousands of miles across trackless desert to reach the major ports and cities of the Mediterranean. All along this long road, local kings and faraway emperors eagerly set up stopping points for the caravans, making sure that they too got their share of the goods and profits.

The ancient city of Tamar in southern Israel was just such a site. Already by the tenth century B.C., Solomon had established Tamar as a fortified town to control the trade routes coming from Arabia. Subsequent kings of both Judah and Edom, including Josiah, occupied the site in order to oversee the passing caravan trade. The Edomites even maintained a cultic shrine at Tamar, as evidenced by several distinctive Edomite incense altars found in a pit at the site. By the latter half of the first millennium B.C., the great Nabatean merchants of Petra had also established a commercial outpost here, an outpost that was then occupied by the Romans in the second century A.D.

Although excavation work at Tamar is continuing, the Blossoming Rose society, in coordination with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, is embarking on a long-term project to conserve, develop and protect this important desert site as a national park. Volunteers are needed not only to help excavate and restore the archaeological remains, but also to help build structures and plant trees for the planned 53-acre park.

Located 30 miles south of the Dead Sea in the desert steppe of the Wadi Arabah, Tamar is quite isolated, and volunteers should expect simple living. If you’re looking for a quiet, serene and incredibly beautiful setting, however, Tamar is the place for you. The project facility has a kitchen, dining hall, toilets and showers, as well as several rooms furnished with beds.