Jordan

Only one objective for this first 2 days (29th and 30th of April 08) trip to Jordan: PETRA. This is a wonderful place but you have to get to the site at the opening time (6 a.m.) if you want to enjoy the real Petra, I mean without all the stupid tourists (the worst type I saw in my life: they did not have any respect for the beauty of the place, they don’t care about the country – I don’t understand when people walk half naked in the middle of a desert? Are we in a Mediterranean club? – and there are extremely noisy for a natural place like Petra).

What about Jordanians? so short time to make a point of view! But I felt a stronger ‘desert’ temperament, at least from the appearance. Accent is deeper and people seems to be more stressed (time is money; our taxi driver was kissing money when I gave him back some too much change by mistake). I had a different feeling with Bedouins, they seems to me quiet as the desert. About the language, I did not have any specific problem to understand Jordanians, the dialect is the ‘chamy*’ one with a deeper accent and some different expressions. Bedouins from Petra have a different dialect than people I met in Amman. I was just a bit sad when I notice that the Bedouins prefer to speak to me in English with a perfect American accent than listening to my Fushra**. But it is also true that they speak a hardly understandable Arabic for a novice in dialects like me…

In 1985, Petra was inscribed on the World Heritage List of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Inscription on this list confirms the exceptional universal value of a cultural or natural site that deserves protection for the benefit of all humanity. Petra, as the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom, thrived as an important trading post on the international Spice Route, serving a crossroad between Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria-Phoenicia, India, China and the Mediterranean Basin. Nestled within intricate geological formations of mountains and gorges are the impressive tombs that the Nabataean carved out of the sandstone rock faces. Nabataean, Romans and Byzantines built the city of Petra from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. Whilst the architectural façades of the tombs are a harmonious blend of ancient Assyrian, Egyptian, Hellenistic and Roman styles, archaeological excavations in Petra have brought to light that the city itself survived well into the Byzantine period.

*From Cham: approx. between Palestine and Iraq, with south Syria and north Jordan.
**classic Arabic

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