voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. i'm alice morrison, an adventurer and writer. i've cycled across africa and run across the sahara. now i'm on the trail of a mysterious and forgotten arabian civilisation, the nabataea ns. are we standing in the birthplace of written arabic? i think i would say that, yes. they were nomads who forged a rich civilisation here in the harsh desert conditions of western arabia from the fourth century bce. they ruled for around

three centuries until they were swallowed up by the roman empire. now all that's left are the enigmatic remains of their great desert cities of petra and hegra, in modern—day jordan and saudi arabia. and this is where i have come to explore, to find out how they survived and thrived here, who they were, and even what they looked like. i want to search for clues about their world. i'll investigate their ancient sites, delving deep into their secret tombs and sanctuaries. oh, my goodness! indiana jones, eat your heart out. wait till you see this. i'm tracking down the leading experts doing new research who will help me build up a picture of the nabataeans. they did not use slave. it's a respectful job. the secret nabataeans possessed is the knowledge of the great deserts around them. and i'm going to meet the people who are living here now to try and understand what life was like then in this remarkable landscape.

this is what enabled the nabataeans to trade and they�* re beautiful. join me as i uncover the secrets of the nabataeans. the nabataeans forged a successful empire around 300 bce. that's towards the end of the civilisation of the far better—known ancient egyptians. they were nomads and traders who took control of the lucrative incense route all the way from modern—day yemen, through arabia and up to the ports of gaza and alexandria. and it was on this 2,000km trade route that they chose the site for their capital, petra, and carved theatres, caves and tombs out of the sandstone rocks. in many ways, this is a strange place to build a city. we're not elevated and we're not near a river or the sea, but the steep, rocky gorges provided a different kind

of security for the desert people who made this their home. this is the siq. it's a rock canal just three metres across at its narrowest point. that's barely wide enough for two camels to pass. for the nabataeans, it was a natural defence, a place to channel water, and, of course, a very dramatic threshold to their majestic city. talk about a secret entrance! this is an explorer�*s dream. you come around the corner and the darkness turns into light, which leads to this place, the treasury. it's quite simply one of the most breathtaking places on earth.

intricately carved with these exquisite corinthian columns, figures and friezes, it's almost a0 metres tall. like most of the structures still standing here, it's thought to be a nabatean tomb. to decode its rich facade for me is someone who knows this place inside and out. dr sami alhasa nat. assalaamu alaikum. alaikum assalaamu. well, sami, this is such a beautiful, amazing building. oh, yes. i really love it. this is one of the most impressive monuments in the world. and the more you focus on it, the more you see. recently, they started calling it the treasury. something like a bank or a place to treasure valuable things. but the truth is that it was just because of the jar on the very top, where you see the urn on the top. yes, i can see it. they thought there was gold in it. _ and tell me, why is the jar full of holes?

that's because of shooting. thinking there was gold in it. they must have been so disappointed. it was so disappointing. i mean, the building is absolutely wonderful and amazing, but it seems to me to have taken things from different cultures. nabataeans, because of the trade routes, travelled all over the ancient world. they left petra as traders and they came back as engineers, as architects, as astronomists. they learned a lot. so this facade has all influences from all the ancient cultures, starting from the very top. for example, in the middle between the two central columns, this was isis, the egyptian goddess. the pediment itself in the middle, it is greek, while on top of the upper angle of the pyramid, there's kind of tabular or table.— right in the middle is the solar disk, surrounded by two horns of the egyptian cow, hathor and two barley or wheat ears on both sides, and this to represent the

fertility and the richness, the wealth of the nabataeans. this was their statement with which they stated themselves squarely with all the other cultures, by saying, "this is who we are." quite a big statement. and an amazing interpretation for who they were. star of far too many tiktoks, the treasury is the focal point of petra for its up to one million annual visitors, but to house around 30,000 inhabitants, the rose city, as it became known due to the distinctive pink sandstone here, sprawled out over 250 square kilometres. so was this the main part of the city? this is the city centre. right. that's where you find the theatre, you find the shops and you find houses of the common, houses of the royalty. but, you know, petra was still inhabited by people until 1985. yeah. we lived in petra sharing caves with other families as well. i was a shepherd. professor sami was a shepherd.

his dad was a nomad. and they lived here with their sheep and their goats. professor sami was a shepherd. his dad was a nomad. and they lived here with their sheep and their goats. did you play, like hide and seek in these caves and these palaces? definitely, definitely. and it was always impossible for anybody to could have found me. 2,000 years ago, petra was chosen for this purpose. absolutely hidden. right. not only that, but also it is surrounded by huge deserts. so nobody could have found petra unless they were guiding into it. so the secret nabataeans possessed is the knowledge of the great deserts around them. so they established the trade routes. they assumed very high security

and peacefulness on top of all these trade routes. not only that, but they provided with water, food, protection, and they charged tolls and taxes because of that. this is the reason of their wealth. dr sami comes from a bedouin family. they were nomads, just like the ancient nabataeans, so families like his lived in these caves for centuries before petra's western rediscovery by the swiss explorer, john lewis burckhardt, in 1812. it's been something of a tourist magnet ever since, but i've asked sami if he'll show me the places that might contain hidden traces of the people who lived here. we have here some pottery shards. as you can see. shards. i love a shard. these are pieces leftover for 2,000 years. that's when. .. isn't that exciting,

to just come and find things, you know, here, that you can pick up?— this is this a couple of thousand years old and i'm holding it. you could even still make out some of the hand—painted decoration. that's amazing! these were usually floral motifs, perhaps inspired by some of the native plants that still grow here. that's a carob tree. and you know what's interesting about the carob? ida. their seeds are 100% similar size and similar weight. they use them to weigh gold with them. that's fantastic. 24—carat means 2a seeds of carob. no! yes. oh, i love this fact. the nabataeans were rich and seemed to have lived luxurious lifestyles. they amassed their gold by charging as much as 25% on goods that passed through their kingdom. for this high price, traders who entered the city down this street, were provided with water, shelter and protection during their stay here. when i'm walking down here,

2,000 years ago, would i have been walking with my camels? that's interesting. you'd have your camel parked outside.- that's the camel park? camel parking lot.- then you would come here. yeah. as a member of a tribal delegation or traders. right. then you would pass. the king himself would be standing down there to welcome you to petra. this was the reception. a welcoming place as a main caravanserai to welcome all these traders. these revered guests who provided the city's income were merchants travelling along the incense route. as the name suggests, the goods that they were transporting were resins that were highly prized for their perfume and medicinal qualities. it's a shame we don't have smell—o—vision because i've just caught a whiff of frankincense, which of course was one of the main things that was traded by the nabataeans.

it smells amazing. assalaamu alaikum. alaikum assalaamu. and myrrh is for medicine. for your health. frankincense and myrrh may also have had a religious value for the nabataea ns. their giant tombs symbolise the significance and myrrh is for medicine. for your health. frankincense and myrrh may also have had a religious value for the nabataea ns. their giant tombs symbolise the significance of the afterlife, and it's possible that these precious substances

may have been included in their burial rites. to ask about their beliefs and how they honoured their dead, i'm meeting up with eminent archaeologist dr fawzi abudanah. he's brought me to a tomb off the beaten track that's literally been lost to the sands of time. oh, my goodness! indiana jones, eat your heart out. wait till you see this! so inside, you see, it's a chamber. and then we have two sides of this big chamber. smaller chambers. i just want to dig, because what am i going to find underneath here? it's all hidden, it's all secret still. it is actually.

would there be more graves down at the bottom? it is quite possible. they were using every possible space to bury, and most of these tombs are family tombs. so they would keep their beloved ones together in the same place. we nearly know 30% of ancient petra, so 70% is still uncovered. that's wonderful. it is, yeah. you're going to be busy for the rest of your life. that's true, that's true. and maybe my sons and their sons as well. and this is good for our culture to keep connections with our ancestors for like 2,000 or 3,000 years ago. i love it. literally, just leave me here, give me a shovel, and i am going to excavate this tomb. it's going to be my life's work. it's astonishing that even here at such a well—visited site, there's so much to find, with two thirds still hidden from view. but i'm about to discover that it isn'tjust the ground beneath us that holds its secrets.

there are special places high above us, too. i'm in petra injordan, exploring the lost civilisation of the nabataeans. the only way to get up is up these steps that the nabataeans would have climbed. you can see why this is going to be a spiritual experience, because we're surrounded by these red, brooding, beautiful rocks and the only way to go is up. it's an unrelenting, windblown climb up more than 800 steps. but i can see why dr fawzi wanted to bring me up here. this is so impressive.

it is indeed. this is really a fascinating spot. high places in ancient civilisations, including the nabataean, were really the points where you would probably get closer to your deities. and we know that the nabataean religion was based on worshipping solar deities. so this is a high spot, a nice place to look to, to the heaven, to the sun. and they sacrificed animals during certain occasions, like the festivals or feasts related to their deities. so you'd come up these steps? maybe this is the last part of the festival. they could have walked around here, couldn't they? yeah.

this was a common practice in the nabataean period. and you could make... yeah, like a circle. ..circumambulation. circumambulation, like around the kaaba in ourtime. you could do this. got the water. and maybe you get the blessings from the priest, like, you know, pouring some water or blood. we don't know what was going on. at 170 metres, this is one of the highest places in petra. it does feel like it would have been a perfect spot to worship a sun god. but even with experts like dr sami and dr fawzi to guide us, the nabataean civilisation keeps its secrets close. petra is so magnificent and so visible, and yet there are so many unanswered questions. why is that? why do we know so relatively little about this magnificent civilisation? because unfortunately, we don't have a nabataean historiography because the lack of written evidence, the lack of inscriptions, all of the main monuments in petra, they don't have inscriptions. one of the explanations for that, saying that they were covered with plaster, with stucco and painted and most likely inscriptions were written on that.

but did they leave any written evidence, like on some form of paper or papyrus? so i think they must have written, because we know that the nabataean community was well organised, probably in the future we could find something, and as one archaeologist said, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. ah. petra in all its splendour, has taught me a lot about how the nabataeans built, traded, worshipped and honoured their dead. but i want to know about their everyday life. i want the human story. and so it's time for me to leavejordan and travel over 500km south, across the border to saudi arabia. i'm actually travelling down the road that the ancient

nabataeans would have used as their main trade route. although of course i'm in a car, so i'm a bit faster than if i had camels and i was on foot. the reason the trade route is here is because of the oases on either side of the road. they were vital stepping stones, which dictated the life of the humans trying to live in this vast, arid landscape. and to find out what these fertile areas provided to the traders, i'm visiting the palm tree—filled valley of al—ula. i've come to a traditional farm in an oasis to meet saud, who's been farming this since he was a child, to learn a little bit more about how the nabataeans might have lived. and we're in saudi arabia. women are no longer obligated to wear an abaya and a headscarf. but, number one, as a mark of respect, i like to cover my head. and number two, because it's extremely hot and this provides me with some shelter.

date palms like these have been planted here since 21100 bce. they can survive extended drought, live for up to 100 years, and produce a highly nutritionalfruit. the original superfood. and it strikes me that that is another secret of the nabataeans because they had dates, the original superfood. and it strikes me that that is another secret of the nabataeans because they had dates, they were in these oases. this is where the trade route is. and if they had these, then they could cross the desert.

we need a little bit of camel cream tojust dip it into, and then it'll be perfect. fortuitously, saud doesn't just produce dates. he's also got a herd of 13 dromedaries, one—humped camels. i love camels, so i can't wait to meet them. i'm in my happy place. look at their little curious faces. saud was just telling me how important these camels are. and it's notjust about what they can produce saud was just telling me how important these camels are. and it's notjust about what they can produce and what they can give.

it's also that they're very much a part of his culture and his family's culture. so, for the nabataeans, they would have had female camels in the camel train. they would have had baby camels would have been born along the route, and they would have had this milk as well as the dates, which is absolutely delicious. ship of the desert. it's like a cliche, but in fact, it's the truth. and without these, there would be no trade, there would be no tombs, there would be no hegra, there would be no petra. this is what enabled the nabataeans to trade. and they're beautiful. this oasis farm has given me

an insight into how the extremely resourceful nabataeans could have flourished in these desert lands, allowing them to build not only their spectacular capital of petra, but also their second great city of hegra here in saudi arabia. next time, i'll explore this incredible site that was closed to the world for so long, look deeper into what their society was like and the role played by women. i'll discover the secrets of how they lived and come as close as i can to meeting an actual nabataean. join me as i continue to uncover more secrets of the nabataeans. i mean, just look at this!

hello. for many of us, friday was a pretty mild day, thanks to the south to southeasterly winds. the best of the sunshine was across england and wales. we had a top temperature of 18 degrees around the london area. but for scotland and northern ireland, there was a lot more cloud than there has been, bringing outbreaks of rain over recent houi’s. now, on the satellite picture, you can see the weather front that's bringing in that zone of cloudier weather to the northwest of the uk. a strong jet stream continues to develop this weather system and it's going to be bringing some very heavy rain into the republic of ireland, where there's probably

going to be some flooding across southern areas. the front itself is very slow—moving, so over the next few hours, we're going to keep the largely clear skies across england and wales. one or two fog patches possible in the east, where temperatures could dip as low as about 3 or 4 degrees in the coldest spots. but across the northwest of the uk, temperatures staying up into double figures because we've got that cloud. there's a fair breeze around here but we also have a bit of rain to come as well. ow, heading into the first part of saturday, there will be some pulses of heavy rain that work into northern ireland. the rain tending to come and go, so there might be some brighter spells for the afternoon here. rain at times, too, for western and northern areas of scotland but away from that, for eastern and southern scotland, for the bulk of eastern wales and all of england, really, it should be a fine and a dry day with plenty of sunshine. it's going to be another mild one — top temperatures could hit 18 degrees once again. now, these weather fronts will then push eastwards through saturday night, weakening as they run into our area of high pressure to the east, so just a few patches

of light rain. there will be some damp weather, then, for some as we start off sunday morning but we've got a more pronounced band of heavier rain that, through the afternoon, will spread into northern ireland, this time wales and south west england getting a bit of a soaking, too. the south to southeasterly winds continue to drag up the mild air, so temperatures above average for most — looking at around 17 in london and cardiff and about 1k for edinburgh. then, into next week, this area of low pressure is going to continue to fire showers or some longer spells of rain across the uk. meanwhile, a low pressure, perhaps to our south, contains the remnants of hurricane kirk. well, that could bring some very strong winds to parts of western europe. western france looking vulnerable at the moment. but here in the uk, it's an unsettled—looking week. quite windy at times with showers or longer spells of rain next week. bye bye.

live from washington, this is bbc news air strikes continue in lebanon, as israel tells more than 30 villages in the south to evacuate. lebenese people take to escaping on foot after a key road leading to syria is destroyed, as the humanitarian situation deteriorates. and iran's supreme leader makes a rare public appearance defending the attack on israel earlier this week, as israel decides if they will retaliate. i'm helena humphrey. good to have you with us. the middle east stands on the brink

of a wider conflict. israel is continuing its operations in lebanon