We love to explore our country, Israel. It's amazing to be in ancient ruins, now deserted in the desert. Long considered a classic Nabataean town on the ancient spice route, archaeologists are now considering the possibility that Shivta was a Byzantine agricultural colony and a way station for pilgrims en route to the Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. Roman ruins from the first century BCE have been unearthed,but most of the archaeological findings are Byzantine.