Ruin of ancient Petra

An Indiana Jones kitsch shop selling Bedouin souvenirs marks the entrance to Petra, the 'red rose city' half as old as time'.

The ancient city's love affair with travellers caught in its exoticism continues to this day, just as the love had once shown itself in the verse of Dean Burgeon, a Briton.

Here, thousands of travellers diligently undertake the trip down the Siq trail on foot, horse-drawn buggies or Arab steeds towards a dramatic scene revealing the Pharaoh's Treasury.

Commercial centre

The quaintness of the Bedouin country has given way to hotels, spas, international telephone booths and internet cafés, found around every corner in this rocky city, ensconced in a valley.

The commercialism enveloping Wadi Mousa has seeped through the ticket counters and into the World Heritage Site.

However, this commercialism is countered by the rock-hewn palaces, tombs and the 1,000 steps winding through red-stone mountains to Ad Deir — all of which test the diligence of the self-proclaimed adventurer in finding the true city.

Petra was one of the main attractions in Jordan till the mid 1990s and continues to be the strongest crowd-puller in the country.

For a piece of the past

Conservation efforts here need more than just funds to preserve the site. There are notices urging tourists not to carry away rocks and stones from the place, but to no avail.

Poverty has been forcing Bedouin families living in Wadi Mousa to sell ancient coins washed downstream from unknown nooks, during the brief rainy season.

For JD10 (Dh52) a coin the size of a fingertip, with ancient carvings of lost script or royal faces or deities peeping through a green patina, is yours.

Colourful rocks, sandstones and even chips of what seem to be carvings from façade of some ancient building are up for sale.

An old Bedouin woman, with her orphaned granddaughter, joins hundreds of others — women and children mostly — on the trail to Ad Deir to sell blackened silver jewellery, that belonged to her mother, and a piece of family history along with it.

Can't hide it

The high-noon sun that lights up the pink, yellow and black rocks, fails to outshine the blatant commercialism of the place — from restaurants selling entire buffets, but no bottles of water in the summer heat, to Thailand-made silver tack that passes off as Bedouin jewellery to support the women of the valley.

But most of the tourists, with only a day or two at their disposal, are too busy taking in the feel of the place to actually mind any of it.

The place is so touristy and so dramatic in a clichéd way that I thought it was hardly worth writing about. And yet, the ruins of the city — the identity of whose builders is lost to time — cannot fail to evoke awe.

Unlike many of the archaeological sites with such touristy appeal, Petra's origins are not well documented.

Whatever little has managed to filter through the web of history reveals a metropolis, which flourished around 1200BC at the crossroads of caravan trails connecting far-flung corners of the Middle East.

Make way for locals

Various influences — from Nabatean to Grecian — in the sculptures show that globalisation is not just a modern way of life.

Exchange of influences and ideas on a nearly global stage existed prior to the birth of any religion and is as old as the need for survival.

In the 21st century, it is not a place to scout for the real Arabia.

The Bedouins who had been living in the caves of Petra until the 1970s, have been removed to a hideously modern village outside the city to make way for the tourism industry that generates huge revenues for Jordan.

What remains is a tourist place that closes down at 6pm for day visitors. "No one has the permission to stay behind, except some like us," says Mohammad, a local Bedouin.

Some caves, which were once inhabited, have been refurbished with air-conditioning for a few original Bedouin settlers who are now caretakers of the site, he said, pointing to his cove high up in one rock face, near the Qasr Al Bint or Nabatean fort. But, the flow of tourists does not stop at sundown.
Candle-lit tours of Petra are arranged by some high-end hotels.

With its designation as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, Petra gears up to spend more sleepless nights, where the privacy of its original settlers is not worth a thing.

Petra from the UAE
The closest airport to Petra is Amman.

From Dubai
Etihad Airways flies five times a week. Fare: Dh1,380
Qatar Airways flies twice a week via Doha. Fare: Dh910
Gulf Air flies daily via Bahrain. Fare: Dh850
Kuwait Airways flies twice a week via Kuwait.
Fare: Dh800

From Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways flies five times a week. Fare: Dh1,380
Qatar Airways flies twice a week via Doha. Fare: Dh910
Gulf Air flies daily via Bahrain. Fare: Dh850
Kuwait Airways flies twice a week via Kuwait.
Fare: Dh800
(All fares exclusive of taxes)
Information courtesy MMI Travel