The site of Humayma, the ancient Nabataean and Roman settlement of Hawara, is located in Southern Jordan, 80km south of Petra and 80km north of Aqaba. Upon reaching the Humayma sign visitors need to drive for 8km into the desert until they reach the site. Furtermore, Humayma was a small trading post and caravan way-station in Edom, the desert region of southern Jordan. It was founded by the Nabataean King Aretas III in the '80s BC as a sedentary center for the local nomadic Nabataean pastoralists, and as a strategy of state formation by a developing monarchy.

Soon after the Roman conquest of the Nabataean kingdom in 106 AD and the formation of the Provincia Arabia, Trajan's forces built a major fort at the site to administer this region and suppress any local resistance. A modest prosperity continued through the Byzantine and early Islamic periods, until the site was abandoned around 750 AD. Excavations have so far exposed spectacular architectural remains, including one of the best-preserved early imperial forts in the Middle East.