Moa

Mo’a (Khirbet Maiyan ‘Awad) is a fort and caravanserai from the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

The site had been surveyed several times during the 1930s, but was not excavated until 1981 during an emergency excavation on behalf of the Israeli Department of Antiquities. Two primary structures were identified. On a prominent hill, a small fort with three discernable building phases was uncovered. The earliest phase dates to the third-second centuries BCE, the second phase to the first century CE, and the third phase to the second-third centuries CE. The large caravanserai, or khan, in the valley below only attests to two building phases: the end of the first century CE and the beginning of the second century CE. The khan was used largely by the Nabateans as an important station along the Petra–Gaza road mid way between Petra and Avdat .