Solid Rock and Deep Blue Sea
Petra and Sharm El Sheikh brought together two very different parts of this journey: the rose-coloured rock of an ancient city and the deep blue of the Red Sea. Petra may already look familiar from the cinema, but walking between its sandstone walls is another matter. [1]
This is a personal account of my visit in March 2024. I want to share the photographs and a little historical context, while keeping what I saw separate from stories heard on the journey.
The journey to Petra: We left Sharm El Sheikh around midnight, travelled north through Sinai and crossed by boat to Jordan. After a thorough border check, including an iris scan, there was still a long bus journey through the desert. It was a tiring day, but worth the effort. [2]
Our guide, whom I will call Mr Aladin, filled the travel time with explanations of the landscape, archaeology and regional politics. His enthusiasm made the journey lively. Some details needed checking afterwards: a bus window and a guided tour offer impressions, rather than a complete account of a country.
Where Are We?
In a rocky desert whose scale is difficult to grasp from a photograph. Looking across the bare slopes, I found it hard to imagine making a life here. The goat below seemed considerably less troubled by the terrain than I was.
Bedouin communities have long-standing connections with this landscape. Their knowledge of grazing, water and seasonal movement deserves more attention than the romantic image of a camel and a tent. Present-day lives are varied, and many families combine settled life with work linked to herding, trade or tourism. [3]
The rock-cut spaces also need careful interpretation. A doorway in a cliff is not necessarily a dwelling. The monument below is a funerary and ceremonial complex, not the house of a wealthy family. [4]
Status Quo: Looking Beyond the Scenery
Jordan’s modern political history is much shorter than the history of the places we were passing. Transjordan emerged under British administration in 1921, and independence followed in 1946. The country has also received successive generations of Palestinian refugees and people displaced from Syria. [5]
I admire the responsibility involved in receiving people who have lost their homes. But the tents I saw from the bus could not tell me who lived in them or what services they had. Nor could I verify stories about individual families’ journeys. Those observations should not be turned into population statistics.
The situation of Bedouin communities elsewhere in the region also concerns me. Questions of land, demolition and displacement in the Negev and the West Bank have been raised by UN human-rights bodies. These are distinct situations, and they cannot be explained by saying that everyone seen in southern Jordan has followed the same route. [6]
Then the stone itself draws the eye back. These pink, ochre and red bands explain the name “Rose City” more directly than any description could.
When Did It All Start?
I first thought of writing a short history of the region. The word “short” quickly became a problem. Petra’s famous monuments belong above all to the Nabataean city of the last centuries BCE and the first century CE, not to 9000 BCE. Much earlier evidence of human life in Jordan belongs to a different story. [1]
One example is the roughly 14,400-year-old bread remains found at Shubayqa 1 in north-eastern Jordan. The discovery is extraordinary, but it does not date the Nabataeans or the buildings at Petra. [7]
Religious traditions also connect the surrounding landscape with Moses and Aaron. I regard these as traditions associated with the place, rather than archaeological explanations of its water system. The surviving channels and reservoirs are impressive achievements in their own right. [1]
For me, Petra’s role in long-distance trade has a particular attraction. My first academic paper concerned the Chinese part of the Silk Road, and the wider subject has fascinated me ever since. Petra was a caravan centre connecting Arabia, Egypt and the Mediterranean. Thinking of those connections gives the carved facades another dimension: this was a place of movement and exchange. [1]
Al-Khazneh: The Treasury
The first glimpse through the Siq is difficult to improve upon. A narrow opening in the dark rock suddenly frames the pale facade of Al-Khazneh. Its familiar name, “the Treasury”, belongs to later legend; it is generally understood as a monumental Nabataean tomb. It should not be presented as a proven storehouse for a war chest or a site where large quantities of gold were found. [4]
Up close, the damage and weathering become visible too. I cannot assign every mark to a particular army or period from these photographs, so I have left the earlier attribution to the Ottomans aside.
The theatre is another striking example of architecture cut into the rock. It was built in the Nabataean period, probably in the first century CE; the earlier dating here to the seventh or sixth century BCE was incorrect. [4]
During my visit, some stretches were quiet enough for photographs with very few people. Against the tense regional background, that quiet was a reminder of how much local livelihoods can depend on visitors. It describes the day I was there, rather than present-day travel conditions.
And Where Is the Deep Blue Sea?
Back in Sharm El Sheikh, the colours and the pace changed completely. Rather than explain them at length, I will let this short video close the journey.
Watch the Red Sea travel video.
Extra: The Bedouin Communities
“Bedouin” refers to communities with histories of pastoral and mobile life across several Arab regions, rather than to a single race or a uniform way of living. UNESCO’s account of the Bedu of Petra and Wadi Rum describes knowledge of the environment, oral traditions and the pressures that tourism and settlement can bring. [3]
What stayed with me was how little a brief visit can reveal about the people who make a life in a landscape that visitors call empty. The photographs can show its beauty. Understanding the lives within it takes longer.
Footnotes
[1] UNESCO’s Petra entry describes the Nabataean caravan city, its water engineering and World Heritage inscription in 1985. The rose-coloured stone also brought to mind my visit to Fez and Chefchaouen.
[2] Even my sun hat was X-rayed. Afterwards, I personally felt at ease during the excursion. This records my experience in March 2024, not a general assessment of safety. The city photographed from the bus was previously labelled as an Iraqi border town; I cannot substantiate that location.
[3] UNESCO: Cultural Space of the Bedu in Petra and Wadi Rum. This is a more useful starting point than unsupported population totals or claims that present-day communities do not know money.
[4] The Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority’s Inside Petra and visitor guide identify the Obelisk Tomb, Bab el-Siq Triclinium, Treasury, theatre and Royal Tombs. The last facade shown above is the Corinthian Tomb, not the Urn Tomb.
[5] See the Jordanian Senate’s historical account and UNRWA’s Jordan overview. Registered Palestine refugees, all people of Palestinian origin, and recently displaced people are different categories; the earlier figure of six million in Jordan conflated them.
[6] The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights raised concerns about demolitions and displacement affecting Bedouin communities in its 2019 concluding observations on Israel. This context does not establish the identities or histories of people seen during my visit.
[7] UCL’s research report, Bread Predates Agriculture by 4,000 Years, describes the discovery in north-eastern Jordan. It is geographically and historically separate from Petra’s Nabataean monuments.
Related Articles
Back from Morocco · Cyprus – Paphos: A Photo Diary · The Silk Road: Personal Reflections
Explore Art & Writing
Art Portfolio → Featured Artworks → Arts & Philosophy Journal → All Articles
Explore Asian Art Essays for writing on Chinese painting, calligraphy, aesthetics and art history.
Available Artworks
Original works are available on FriedrichZettl.com and Saatchi Art
Leave a Reply