by Ten Ilajas

The rose-colored labyrinths of stone glimmer under the afternoon sun. There were few bushes and shrubs, but mostly, the tents of the side stores and huge rocks would serve as shade from the direct heat. You can hear the hustle and bustle of the ancient city as merchants sell their goods on the sidewalks. They sold jars, stones, old coins, refrigerator magnets, and many more. You can spot tourists and tour guides exchanging questions and facts about history.

In the small alleys, you can hear the donkeys’ hoofbeats on the stone pathways as they carry bags, bricks, wood, and whatever cargo their owners need to transport. Some parts were being fixed, and you can see stone masons repairing parts of the streets or some stone structures. You can smell the scent of food being cooked in the tents, as well as the dust and animal manure in some parts of the city. 

I covered my head with the shemagh to protect my already sunburnt face from further harsh burns, and as I walked through the streets of Petra, I cannot help but notice that despite it being an ancient city, it remains to be home to all these people – alive and thriving.

As I strolled further, I kept hearing about the Nabateans who built, carved, and inhabited the rose city. It is said that these tribes were once nomads or Bedouins who traveled in the desert. They lived in tents and camped in oases, and once they felt that it was time to go, they arranged and packed their belongings, gathered the family and their animals, and traveled in caravans, that is, until they found and built Petra and made a permanent home.

They have constructed sleeping quarters, stables, monasteries, the famous treasury that appeared in the Indiana Jones movie, stores, hospitals, and even tombs and mausoleums. They have developed irrigation systems that support their need for drinking water and for their vegetation. Petra was even part of the Silk Route where the merchants from 1,500 years ago met to trade their goods.

It remains unsure to this day why the Bedouins or desert nomads have decided to stay in Petra, but in the present day, the people who are staying there have found their source of living; that must have been the reason why the Bedouins also decided to stay.

It is also amusing that despite it being in the desert – hot, barren, with no source of water, and scarce vegetation– people have thrived for hundreds of years before permanently leaving the city.

Some stories claim that there was an earthquake. Others say it was attacked, and a siege between the Byzantine-Lazic and the Persians had happened in the city, causing destruction and irreparable damages. Thus, the people abandoned the city.

And so, Petra is called the “Lost City,” once again uninhabited, quiet, empty, and lost in the vast rose-colored desert. The city that has known civilization, the hustle of humankind to work and survive, the laughter of children on the streets, and the braying of horses and camels is once again just a part of the labyrinths in the desert echoing the sound of the wind.

As I pondered on Petra’s story, I kept thinking about how human nature is set to put a permanent home – perhaps build a house made of bricks or, in the Nabateans’ case, patiently chisel the stones and make a whole city carved and engraved in the mountains. But just like Nabateans who left their city and wandered into the vast desert or somewhere they could look for what it is that was missing in Petra, people seem to come and go even today.

Is it just me – or is the nature of the human heart to look for spaces that we can call home and then leave pieces of ourselves in these spaces? And when the time arrives that we need to leave, we keep these spaces in our hearts and, once in a while, miss them. I wonder if this was also the case for the Nabateans of Petra.

As we prepared to leave the Ancient City, I stood in front of the treasury. I marveled at its beauty and imagined how the Nabateans bade their goodbyes to this beautiful place that would have been surely kept in their hearts – no matter where they wandered in the desert.