Amman, Jordan - Heavy rains caused flash floods across the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, compelling authorities to close the gates of the famed Petra ruins to tourists, who were soggy and surly from the downpour.
Water surged dangerously fast past ruins that included temples, canals and statues carved into red cliffs nearly 2 000 years ago by the people of an ancient Arab culture, Al-Anbat, who are known today as the Nabateans.
Yet a handful of adventurous tourists heard the siren call of the ancients, and struck out 9km north to Petra’s smaller sister, Little Petra.
Once these sites were watering holes on desert trade routes to the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Tourists travel here to see the temples and hike the Nabatean routes connected to the 600km Jordan Trail.
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At Little Petra’s entrance, vendors sold plastic ponchos and umbrellas to shivering tourists. White mist poured over the mountains, obscuring the temples in “the cold canyon”, Little Petra’s name in Arabic, Siq al-Barid.
A narrow, submerged footpath through a crack in the rock was the only way in. During the storm, the only sounds were the patter of rain, the howling of the wind, and giggles and splashing of the tourists.
A French family gingerly forded a gurgling gully full of mud. An elderly woman from Milan plodded down the canyon in shoes wrapped in plastic bags.
The only warmth was Aouath Amarin’s hot mint tea, served in his trinket shop at the top of the stairs at the end of the canyon.
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“A lot of people never see it like this,” said Ian Weir, sheltering from the rain with his friend, Graeme Kinkead, in one of the Nabatean temples.
The two 28-year-olds from Belfast, Northern Ireland, were pleasantly surprised by Little Petra’s damp grandeur. Wrapped in hot pink and bright blue ponchos, the pair beamed at the well-worn carved stones.
Kinkaid said the rain revealed the Nabateans’ secret. They had carved channels and cisterns into the cliffs to catch the arid region’s scant rainfall, “so life was possible here”.
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With this water wealth, the Nabateans securely straddled trade routes until Romans conquered the area.
Their desert adaptations are working today – if one knows where to look in a rainstorm.
SAM McNEIL, AP