LATITUDE: 30°47'57"N / LONGITUDE: 34°47'3"E, October 9, 2011. Bedouin traveler (top, center right) descending a path toward the gardens near the ruined Nabataean city of Ovdat/Abdāt, founded in the third century BC. During the rains, the runoff water flows downward into the streambed, which appears here in a lighter tone. The rocks that might obstruct the vegetation have been cleared away to construct low perimeter walls. The shallow light scratching marks in the image are the traces left behind by herds of sheep and goats passing through the land. Tuleilat al-ʽēnab (Arabic, “grape mounds”) can be seen on the hill in the bottom left of the image. The city was the seasonal camping ground for the Nabataean caravans traveling along the Petra–Gaza incense route., from the series Desert Bloom Artist: Fazal Sheikh (American, born 1965)