From its center, Petra branches, for 853 square kilometers in a maze of wadis, or dry riverbeds and ancient caravan routes that led incense Oman to Gaza and returned laden with gold bracelets Aleppo workshops, to Yemeni souks. A half-century that began to take shape when the Petra Nabataean people reached in the fourth century BC, and evicted from these lands to their former inhabitants, the Edomites. This nomadic pastoral people failed to understand that the enclave was perfect to control trade routes, raising tariffs to cross the territory endorsed. The gorges, crags and ravines of Petra became their stone fortress. Requem christened, Semitic name that refers to a variety of fabric colors, with that which evoked the colorful streaks and mottled rocks of Petra, from which are extracted nine sandstone powder shades.