The Nabataean Kingdom, also named Nabatea was a political state of the Nabataean Arabs during classical antiquity. The Nabataean Kingdom stretched south along the Tihamah into the Hejaz, up as far north as Damascus, which it controlled for a short period. Nabatea controlled many of the trade routes in the region and remained an independent political entity from the mid-3rd century BC until it was annexed in AD 106 by the Roman Empire, which renamed it to Arabia Petraea.