Home » Images » 0034 Pictures From History » CPA0016728

Israel: The ruins of a church at the ruined city of Shivta in the Negev Desert along the old Incense Route. Photo by Ester Inbar (CC BY-SA 3.0 License)

Shivta (Hebrew: שבטה‎), is an ancient city in the Negev Desert of Israel, east of Nitzana. Shivta was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 2005.

Long considered a classic Nabataean town on the ancient spice route, archaeologists are also considering the possibility that Shivta was a Byzantine agricultural colony and a way station for pilgrims en route to the Saint Catherine Monastery in Sinai.

Roman ruins from the first century BCE have been unearthed in the southern part of the town, but most of the archaeological findings date to the Byzantine period. Shivta’s water supply was based on surface runoff collected in large reservoirs.

Three Byzantine churches (a main church and two smaller churches), 2 wine-presses, residential areas and administrative buildings have been excavated at Shivta. After the Arab conquest in the 7th century CE, the population dwindled. It was finally abandoned in the 8th or 9th Century CE.