A splash of the Mediterranean in the Arabian Desert

The Kingdom of Nabataea was an important independent entity in the Arabian desert from the third century B.C. to the early second century A.D. Written records are very sparse, so historians need to draw their conclusions from surviving buildings, archaeological excavations and a study of coins. Here Tom Dunstan analyses the extent to which Nabataea was influenced by Greek culture and to what degree the kingdom managed to forge its own independent character.