Today, cities prosper and fail with the price of oil. So, too, did they in ancient times; however, it was fragrant oils and spices, not fuel oil, that sparked the growth of key cities along the avenues of commerce. With the introduction of camels as pack animals, the city of Alexandria developed into an active trading hub linking several trade routes, including one to Arabia, 2,000 miles away.
By the fourth century B.C.E., Babylon had a thriving market, trading in cedar of Lebanon, cypress, pine, fir resin, myrtle, calamus and juniper. Athens was famous for its hundreds of shops selling scented body oils and solid incense/perfumes. Phoenician merchants dealt in Chinese camphor, Indian cinnamon, black pepper and sandalwood. Africa, South Arabia and India supplied lemongrass, ginger and spikenard, the rhizome of which as an exotic fragrance. China imported jasmine-scented sesame oil from India and Persia, rose water via the Silk Route and eventually, Indonesia aromatics: cloves, gum benzoin, ginger, nutmeg and patchouli.
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