Around midday, the heat is high over the ancient city, bleaching the vibrant rock formations and briefly emptying its celebrated remains of visitors. Plants and a shade keep the outdoor area of a local resident’s rock dwelling cool despite the blazing warmth rising from the surrounding terrain.
“I’ve resided in this place all my life. I haven’t gone anywhere else and it’s impossible to picture not living here. This area is integral to my identity and I won’t leave it,” the 44-year-old farmer and occasional local escort stated.
Development Plans Endanger Traditional Living
Within months, the resident and dozens of other Bedouin from the Bdoul community are expected to be forced from the caves they consider their residence. Currently exists no space for them in Petra as it is transformed by a large-scale modernization project that seeks to build modern infrastructure, regulate an anarchic visitor industry and provide a better experience for the hundreds of thousands of tourists attracted to the historical location.
Feras’s residence, which he lives with his wife and large family, includes four connected 2,400-year-old chambers and an adjacent temporary shelter. Just a short stroll away are the ruins of the city’s grand temple and its colonnaded central pathway. It is also a short hike from the monument referred to as the Treasury, made more famous by the iconic film a Hollywood adventure movie.
Cultural Heritage and Modern Conflict
The caves inhabited by the local community were initially an integral part of a prosperous trading city – the thriving center of the Nabateans for five centuries before it was annexed by the Roman Empire in approximately AD100 and finally abandoned hundreds of years after.
Global rights campaigners have urged Jordanian authorities to halt looming displacements. “Jordan’s removal of the Bdoul from their ancestral homes in Petra places their way of life at risk,” commented a rights representative, a regional senior official at Human Rights Watch. “The Jordanian government should halt the evictions and respect the rights of Petra’s Bedouin community.”
Official Stance and Legal Challenges
Officials charged with the management and development of the site claim the residents who still live within the area are there illegally. They argue that several have alternative accommodation and that their use of the spaces as homes, animal shelters, shops and storage areas could lead to creating permanent damage.
“To preserve the authenticity of the location for future generations then we have to halt the use of the caves for damaging purposes,” stated a senior official, the chief commissioner of the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority. “Everyone within the area, whoever they are, has to follow the regulations, and it is prohibited for anybody to live in or utilize the historical structures inside the site of Petra for any purposes.”
Longstanding Habitation and Past Relocations
Experts note the Bdoul have lived in the rock homes for approximately 200 years. Attempts to relocate the group from the area began shortly after its designation by the United Nations as a world heritage site in 1985. At that time, in a agreement negotiated with community leaders, thousands of residents were transferred to a purpose-built settlement close by. A number evaded the move or have since moved back to their original dwellings.
Recently, with visitor numbers a significant source to Jordan’s struggling economy, big funding have been allocated at the site. Now exists a recently opened museum, cultural village and system of paths. Hundreds of stalls that congested the location have been cleared away, as have guides who harassed visitors. An initiative has been made to cut down on overnight stays in dwellings being offered to guests on social media or well-known reservation services.
Current Eviction Campaign
The new initiative to clear the caves began in late 2024 and focused on a small number of extended families currently residing near the local highland. The Jordanian authorities have been accused by campaigners of using “coercive tactics”.
Feras, who makes a modest living from raising goats and sheep and sometimes working as a guide, has rejected an proposal from authorities of a house in the village where additional community members from Petra are now living. He said he was sent to prison earlier this year for not being able to pay a heavy fine for destroying a protected area. He was freed after a short period but now faces a additional legal proceeding.
“It’s absurd to blame us of damaging the caves,” he said. “We serve as their guardians. We are not destroying any part. We just live the manner we have lived for hundreds of years.”
Yasin Ahmed, one of Feras’s neighbors, mentioned he had too received a court summons, in addition to fines amounting to large sums of dollars, which he also was unable to pay.
“I just don’t have such funds. I’m not affluent,” he said. “I was raised in this place and I’m unfamiliar with other lifestyles. I can’t survive in a house in a town … They are offering just a very small residence but I support 10 children.”
Financial Struggles and Deep Connections
Visitor numbers in Jordan has been severely affected by the regional conflict, with the quantity of visitors to the site dropping dramatically. The Bdoul who earned income from guiding tourists or selling mementos or refreshments have lost much of their earnings.
Rayya Hussein, 85, has sworn to not abandon her cave home, where she has resided since childhood. Her parents are buried in the hills close by. “If they want to force me move out, I will go up to the summit and jump,” she declared.
Academic Perspective and Official Assurances
A researcher, a political geographer at Newcastle University who has studied the area and its changes, said authorities saw the community as a nuisance, even though the UN making clear that their traditional practices was an essential aspect of the site’s importance.
“Currently the situation is the government against the Bdoul, and nobody recognizes that they can work together,” the expert commented. “There has to be some level of progress, but that must not occur at the cost of the local community.”
Braizat said the management had already assured some aged inhabitants that they could remain in their homes if they wanted to, and that the government-built residences provided to the community were sufficiently large, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
He admitted there was limited financial support available for additional homes within or around the {existing|
