Petra and the cave people

One of the most magical places in Jordan is the UNESCO site of Petra. 

It was  elected by the Smithsonian as one of the 28 places to visit before you die, it was voted as one of the 7 Modern World Wonders and, to us movie connoisseurs of the world and for the movie buffs of the world it is also where the canyon scenes from the Raiders of the Lost Ark were shot at.

It was a wonderful place to visit and also one that has been described to exhaustion by a million other people so I’d not focus on Petra itself but rather focus  on something a little less obvious. I want to tell you about its people.

As we drove to Al-Deir monastery towards the beginning of our walk through the site we started talking to our driver about the site and what we slowly discovered was truly fascinating. We knew that Petra was a city founded by the Nabataeans and controlled by many different people throughout time but we really did not expect it to have been inhabited at any recent point in time. Yet it was!

Right there in the middle of a harsh desert, beneath and all around the ancient monuments of Petra are a plethora of caves carved into the rocks where people lived right up to 1985. 

It turns out that in 1985 the Jordanian government decided to protect the site and while doing so it “offered” its inhabitants housing in the city of Wadi Musa.

Imagine that! Here you are, a humble Bedouin living on your millennial home in the desert and suddenly the government comes and moves you out so other people can come and pay to see where you have lived for generations.  What do you do now?

Well you would probably make money out of those people, that’s what!

And so it is for many of the people now living near and around Wadi Musa: they live off of tourism and tourists. 

Petra is a phenomenal place and I wholeheartedly recommend all intrepid explorers to visit it at length  but on every step of the way I had a feeling of excessive tourism exploitation.

After an hour walk through the canyons, we reached Al-Deir as our first landmark of the day and it was also there that I saw the first stark contrast of the day. Here we were, dozens of tourists from all over the world marveling at this monastery over water and tea. At the same time, there they were, the locals in the very middle of a Ramadan that demands they fast for 15 hours, serving us. The very ones that motivated their government to move them away from their homes. The irony was not lost on either A or I.

Later on during our walk, we decided to climb up to the High Place of Sacrifice. It’s a bit of a climb and with temperatures around 30 degrees I was soon tasked with purchasing water from one of the improvised souvenir stands which pepper all of Petra. Full of confidence I walked up and tried to bargain the price of a bottle of water with the lady which was half asleep in the shade of the souvenir stand. It was the funniest thing when suddenly it seemed I was arguing with not only her but also A who decided to get on her side and urged me to pay and just move on. Bargaining is hard enough but when you do it against two motivated women… well, suffice to say I almost left a tip just to get out of there.

But in many ways, that is how things flow at Petra. The tourists come and go but the mostly female salespeople stay and repetitively beat the bargaining urge out of anyone that even attempts to be smart. My pride is still hurting from the a-whooping I got on that negotiation.

The site has a couple of darker sides to it as well. Mostly on the path between the treasury and the Siq there are children trying to sell things. Sometimes alone and sometimes in small groups, children roam that particular area and (very!) persistently attempt to get money from tourists based sometimes on the power of pity and sometimes on the power of annoyance. As it turns out, for many families it is more profitable to send the children to the site to collect money than it is to send them to school. A sad reality which the Jordanian government attempts to control by advising tourists to not pay the children. Yet, there they were and I fear for the most part there they will stay.

At Petra life didn’t just change for the people. Divided in different areas, you will find beasts of burden carrying both cargo and people around.

From the visitors’ center to the treasury and often pulling carts that look more like Tuk Tuks are dozens of horses and mules. After that and until the Museum is the area of the loud and grumpy camels. Finally until the Monastery is the area of the donkeys. 

The site is huge and after hours walking I can begrudgingly admit that even I started looking at the animals as a way to help me on my way (I can imagine how elderly people would feel) but I could also see that not all of the animals were kept in the best conditions and that really was a shame.

While I cannot censure the fact that the animals are used to help carrying all sorts of supplies and such, it certainly seemed unfair to see donkeys carrying perfectly capable women who simply didn’t know better than to go to the desert with high heel shoes.

While I know that this chronicle makes no justice to the real beauty of the site and all of the people who tirelessly work to keep its beauty intact for generations to come, I wanted to share my view on some of its side effects.

While it is undoubtable that the cave dwellers gained significantly both in the short and long term with the move to regular housing in and around Wadi Musa and the subsequent access to all of the things that an urban center provides, it is also true that their way of life was eliminated without any consultation. Sure, they now have shops, schools, hospitals and access to motorways and all of these are tangible upgrades to their standard of living but none of it came without a cost.

Perhaps in 1985 Petra was preserved for all mankind but to the Bedouins who lived there it may just have been lost forever.