Up to 20,000 Nabateans may have once lived here, but earthquakes in the fourth and eighth centuries destroyed most of the city; what remain today are only the sturdiest, most monumental tombs and temples.
Most of the city was destroyed during the fourth and eighth centuries by natural disasters.
However, the federal government ran large deficits through much of the 1980s and early 1990s, which reduced the overall level of national saving in the economy.