Arabia 3D

Scalded by the desert sun,

the waters of the Red Sea

would cook most corals.

These reefs have

had to adapt to survive,

just like the Arabian people.

Over the last 2,000 years,

this desert realm has sparked

two eras of enlightenment,

two Golden Ages.

Just to survive in this desert

is an accomplishment.

Who would ever think that the seeds of

knowledge could sprout here and grow?

Only 80 years ago, most people

in Arabia lived in tents

or in houses

of coral rock or mud.

But in a matter of decades,

all that changed.

Saudi Arabia is now a nation

of some 30 million people.

The capital city of Riyadh

and the holy city of Makkah

have been transformed.

A modern district has grown up

around the Grand Mosque.

Five times each day, Muslims around the

world turn towards Makkah to pray.

And in the busy coastal city of Jeddah,

educational horizons are widening.

Thanks to the wealth

from the oil boom,

Hamzah is one of 80,000 Saudi

Arabians studying abroad.

He is a film student at

DePaul University in Chicago.

I've lived in the U.S. for

seven years, going to school,

but I'm still really close

to my brother, Saleh.

He usually wears the white thawb

because it's part of tradition,

and most men wear it every day.

After 9/11, many of my friends in America

got the idea that we're all extremists.

And we're not.

As my mom says,

we're not perfect.

But we've had a glorious past.

And I can't wait

to travel around the country

and make a film about who

we are and how we got here.

My first stop was the old

section of my hometown, Jeddah.

The houses here haven't changed

much since I was a kid.

But it's amazing, all my country

is progressing so quickly.

Like many other religions and cultures, we're

trying to balance the old and the new.

Tradition and progress.

It's important to maintain

the old values,

and I'd like to capture

some of that balance on video.

The freedom to change is really

important to my generation.

The Arabian Peninsula

is not all sand.

We have mountains, valleys

and even volcanoes.

I headed into the desert to

document a vanishing way of life.

Just like the American cowboy,

the Bedouin is a cultural hero.

To survive out here, the Bedouin

have to live by a strict code of honor,

based on fierce family loyalty,

hospitality and trust.

A true Bedouin kept his word and passed

all these values on to his kids,

and to us.

They say camels are

sweet-natured, unless they're not.

Camels are designed

for the desert.

They have an extra row of lashes for

protection, just like sunglasses.

And a third eyelid that works

like a windshield wiper.

One thing I never expected to see

here was a bunch of baboons,

but I guess it makes sense.

Most of our animals

originated in Africa.

Twenty-five million years

ago, when the Red Sea formed,

it trapped animals

that were originally African.

As lush vegetation vanished

and Arabia turned to desert,

these animals adapted.

I went looking for more

clues to our past underwater.

We only found iron shipwrecks.

But that's what my guide,

Housam, looks for.

Every time we'd find a modern-day

ship, we'd find an ancient one, too,

because they hit the same reef.

A long time ago, wooden ships

carried all kinds of things,

such as ceramic jugs

filled with olive oil.

Archeologists are continuing

to find undamaged artifacts,

like this ancient amphora.

Even tiny broken pieces

can speak worlds.

All I found

were old pottery fragments.

But they led me to a civilization

that was completely new to me.

Where were they from?

I contacted the leading

archeologist in Arabia.

Dr. Daifallah al-Talhi.

And I think the secrets of Madain

Saleh, the secrets of the Nabataeans,

lie underneath

a settlement area.

Dr. al-Talhi couldn't date my

fragments, but he did something better.

He took me to his

research site in the desert.

Dr. al-Talhi studies the early settlers

of this region, the Nabataeans.

The Nabataeans created the first

Arabian Golden Age, 2,000 years ago.

The first thing you need to

have a Golden Age is wealth.

The source of the Nabataeans'

fabulous wealth seems unlikely.

Their huge fortunes literally

grew on trees, Boswellia trees.

The bark oozes the sap needed

to make precious frankincense,

the same frankincense

mentioned in the Bible.

The Nabataean traders started at the

southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula,

and carried frankincense north.

From there, the frankincense

was shipped to cities

throughout the vast

Roman Empire.

At that time, the Romans

worshipped over a dozen gods,

in thousands of temples, each

perfumed with precious frankincense,

up to 3,000 tons a year.

And the Nabataeans

controlled every ounce.

When a trader approached a Bedouin

camp, he faced a crucial question,

"Friend or foe?"

The answer could be

a matter of life or death.

Hospitality had a purpose.

This Bedouin was collecting the most

valuable trade good of all, information.

Because many Bedouins died in

battle, women outnumbered men.

The code of honor

called for modesty.

It was a tribe's duty

to protect widows.

Even today, once you make friends with

an Arab, you're friends for life.

Only the luckiest traders

made it to the Mediterranean

to sell their precious

cargo of frankincense.

Many centuries

after its decline,

the outside world had nearly

forgotten this ancient kingdom

until the late 1800s,

the era of great

exploration by Europeans.

Explorers knew about the

spectacular rock city of Petra.

But the other main Nabataean

city remained a secret.

Arabia, at the time, was hidden

behind a veil of mystery,

off-limits to foreign travelers.

And the Arabian deserts were deadly,

sweltering hot and without water.

Nearly impenetrable.

Huge storms of dust and sand

could last for several days

and swallow travelers

without a trace.

But finally, explorers found the

abandoned city of Madain Saleh.

Here, 130 elaborate tombs were carved by

the Nabataeans into tall sandstone cliffs.

But how did these isolated nomads

become master stonemasons?

From ancient coins early

archeologists found at the site,

we know that the Nabataeans

had frequent contact

with some of the best

architects in the world,

the Greeks and the Romans.

The work of these early

archeologists was not easy.

Centuries of decay

pervaded the tombs.

Inside this tomb, notches were

carved right into the rock walls.

Each one is a coffin.

The Nabataeans helped develop the script

that became the modern Arabic alphabet.

Frankincense made this one of

the richest kingdoms on Earth.

But when the Romans adopted Christianity

and worshipped only one god,

they no longer needed

temples for 12 gods.

The demand for

frankincense collapsed.

And so did the Golden Age

of the Nabataeans.

Dr. al-Talhi told me

that after centuries of decline,

Arabia was about to be reawakened

by something powerful,

the divine revelations

of Prophet Mohammed,

who inspired the whole region

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