 In the 1st century BCE and the first half of that century , it was the Mediterranean port of the Nabateans , whose caravans arrived there from Petra or from <unk> on the Red Sea . In 96 BCE , the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus besieged the city for a year . The inhabitants , who had hoped for help from the Nabatean king Aretas II , were killed and their city destroyed by Jannaeus when Aretas did not come to their aid . 
