Jordan's tourism industry suffers as conflict in the Middle East trundles on

Being situated in a region of political instability and religious strife has cost Jordan dearly over the years - whether in relation to its misjudged support for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 or its difficult balancing act in maintaining relations with both Israel and the Palestinians - and as such it is sad to see once again the ill-effects of geography on this most welcoming of countries.

As Deutsche Presse-Agentur is reporting this week, Jordan's tourism industry is in crisis, with the number of visitors this year at just 30 percent of where visitor numbers stood in 2010. The cause of the downturn is clear enough: violence in neighbouring countries dissuades potential tourists from coming, despite the fact that Jordan is much safer than many other popular tourist destination, whether in Western Europe, the Americas or Asia.

However, the tourism industry is a major source of revenue for Jordan, and all those who depending on tourism - either directly or indirectly - are suffering at a time when the country is already bearing more than its share of the burden in housing refugees from Syria and Iraq.

Let's hope that 2016 brings more positive news, both for Jordan and the wider Middle East.

Al-Salt: Strong contender for world heritage status

As visitors who have spent any length of time in Jordan can attest, while the country punches above its weight in terms of its cultural and historical heritage and the beauty of its natural environment, recent urban development has tended to favour function over form. That is to say, cement blocks and and other utilitarian building materials predominate while streets often are dusty and traffic-clogged. 

View of old city from municipal museum balcony

Thus, it came as a very pleasant surpise on my visit to Jordan last year to arrive in al-Salt, a small city of about 100,000 inhabitants 35km North-West of Amman. Although the locale has been inhabited since ancient times, al-Salt’s heyday came in the 19th century, when traders from Nablus settled in the area and established an architectural legacy of distinctive stone building, many of which survive lto this day. As a result, walking in the centre of al-Salt is like stepping back in time, and the feeling is only strengthened the bustling street life with local people going about their business with not a single souvenir hawker or hustler in sight. 

Market street in the old city

All in all my stay in al-Salt was a highlight of my trip to Jordan, and as such I welcome the municipal authorities’ tenacity in making a third attempt to have their city inscribed as a world heritage site. While the previous attempts, undertaken in 1994 and 2004 respectively, reportedly suffered from their dependence on local experts, the city has now engaged an international consultant with experience working UNESCO to help develop the current bid. With a little over a month to the application deadline, I certainly hope that al-Salt proves to be third time lucky.

19th century home in al-Salt

Ambitious restoration project at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity

Bethlehem’s Church of Nativity, a world heritage site located at the site traditionally associated with the birthplace of Jesus Christ, was first completed in the 4th century CE. While the church was rebuilt two centuries later following a fire, the elaborate mosaic floors from the original church were retained.

Having into the 21st century having survived earthquakes, sieges and (perhaps most destructively) leaking roofs, the Palestinian Authority launched a major renovation project in 2013 costing  approximately USD25 million. While the renovation work was still very much in evidence at the time of my visit to the church last year, impressive results are beginning to emerge, as reported by the Financial Times this week. In particular, tweltfh century mosaics have been restored to their former glory, giving visitors a chance to see them as they would have been seen by Christian pilgrims visiting the site in centuries past.

The restoration project will reportedly continue over the next three years, focussing on the church’s capitals columns, stone floor and floor mosaics. I look forward to seeing the end result.

Syria accuses Turkey over illicit antiquities trade

In the latest flashpoint in the already fraught relationship between Syria and Turkey, Mr. Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's head of antiquities, has accused Ankara of refusing to return looted objects from heritage sites in Syria or provide information about them. Speaking to the Reuters News Agency, Mr. Abdulkarim claimed that Turkey has seized 2,000 heritage objects, compared to 300 seized by Jordan and 90 by Lebanon. Meanwhile, Syrian authorities have themselves recovered over 6,000 pieces from smugglers.

Of course, it is not just neighbouring states which have a role to playing to play in stopping the illicit trade in antiquities. Both dealers and governmnents in rich countries should equally do their part, particularly given that it is the demand for these pieces which continues to fuels the trade.

Visit Petra virtually with Google Street View

While I use Google Street View chiefly for the mundane task of locating addresses in my home town of Ottawa, Google announced this week that it is adding the ancient Nabatean City of Petra to its catalogue of maps, allowing virtual tourists the pleasure of roaming about this world heritagesite without the hassle of in-person travel, not to mention the souvenir hawkers and camel ride hustlers featured on my blog earlier this week.

Although it took me a few minutes to get used to the interface, I was impressed with Google has accomplished.

More effective management required at Petra world heritage site

When making arrangements to spend a four-week holiday Jordan in July 2014 during the fasting month of Ramadan, I got more than a few quizzical looks and questions: Isn't four weeks too long? Won't everything be closed? Will it be safe? Won't it be unbearably hot? And so on and so on...

The Temple of Hercules in Amman

The truth is that Jordan is an amazing country which everyone should visit. Quite apart from the A-list of tourist sites, notably Petra, Wadi Rum, Jerash and the Dead Sea, Jordan has a tremendous variety of attractions, ranging from ancient ruins and castles to hiking and canyoning in breathtakingly beautiful nature reserves. Moreover, the country's sprawling capital Amman is also a well worth a few days' visit, whether to explore the Citadel, enjoy the world's best falafel at Hashem Restaurant or relax in a trendy café on Rainbow Street. And did I mention that there are few places I've visited where I felt safer or more welcome.

Souvenir stall inside a tomb

However, I do have one small complaint. The ancient Nabatean city of Petra, a world heritage site which receives more than half a million visitors each year, appears to be experiencing significant challenges related to the effective management of the site. These include:

• The proliferation of shops and kiosks throughout the property without any apparent regard for the physical impact on the site’s temples and monuments. In some cases shops and kiosks have been established within temples or ground in the vicinity of temples and monuments has been levelled or otherwise physically altered to facilitate the construction of kiosks.

• Ubiquitous and often aggressive solicitation of visitors by local community members for services such as donkey or camel rides or for the purchase of souvenirs.

• Minimal control of the property exercised by authorities, whose presence appears limited chiefly to access points to ensure that visitors have purchased a ticket prior to entering the site.

I understand that these problems are linked to the authorities' inability to address the aspirations and grievances of the local Bedouin community, many of whose members were displaced from the area years ago and now earn a living from visitors by selling trinkets, refreshments or animal rides. In this regard Petra stands in contrast to the many other world heritages sites I have visited around the world, including several in countries facing development challenges even greater than those confronting Jordan.

Child hawking postcards near Petra's Royal Tombs

I hope the Jordanian authorities take steps to address these issues, both for the sake of the ruins themselves and the local population.

The quiet destruction of Yemen's cultural heritage

While the Syrian civil war and its repercussions both within and beyond the Middle East monopolise much of world media's attention, the conflict in nearby Yemen seems largely to escape attention, notwithstanding the indiscriminate attacks that are ravaging this already poor country.

While there are many reasons for the lack of reporting on this conflict, the prognosis for Yemen and its people is increasingly grim, whether measured in the conflict's human toll or its economic and physical impacts. On November 16, 2015 The Intercept published an excellent article on this latter aspect of the conflict, and particularly in relation to Yemen's rich cultural heritage. It makes for difficult reading, and no less disturbing are the photos of the damage caused by Saudi-led air strikes on historical buildings.

Given the willingness of Western governments to condemn the destruction of cultural heritage in places like Iraq, Syria and Mali, it is more than passing strange that these same governments would drag their feet when presented the opportunity recent at the UN to hold Saudi Arabia to account for its actions in Yemen.

Syrian cultural heritage in Islamic State's crosshairs

Addressing the Italian Parliament last week, Syrian Director General of Antiquities and Museums Maamoun Abdulkarim was grim in his assessment of the situation facing archaeological sites in his homeland. With up to 300 sites under the control of the so-called Islamic State (IS), Syria's magnificent cultural heritage faces a double risk. On the one hand IS continues to destroy artefacts it considers idolatrous. On the other, it is heavily involved in antiquities trafficking as a ready source of funds for its struggle. 

Sadly no happy ending is yet in sight.

New front in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict opens at the UNESCO Executive Board

As violence ratchets up once again in the Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, new fronts continue to open in the seemingly endless spiral of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. As reported by the New York Times, the latest battlefield UNESCO's Executive Board which met this week to discuss a resolution brought forward by six Arab states to reclassify the Western Wall as part of the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's old city.

While in the end the Executive Board agreed only to a resolution condemning “Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access to their holy site", the episode starkly demonstrates how political forces - on all sides - harness exploit cultural and religious heritage in pursuit of their particular interests and objectives.

Impressions of Quseir Amra, a "castle" in Jordan's Eastern Desert

Jordan is known principally among Western tourists for the ancient Nabatean city of Petra, typically visited on a side-trip from Israel, although these days many are foregoing even this short jaunt into Jordan given the country's uncomfortable proximity to the Middle Eastern flashpoints of Syria and Iraq. This is a shame, for not only is Jordan comparatively much safer than many other popular destinations in Western Europe and North America, but it offers an array of sights and activities that should be enough to satisfy even the most discerning of visitors.

Jordan's Eastern Desert Highway

Having spent almost a month in Jordan last year, one of the experiences I enjoyed the most was visiting the country's "desert castles" over the course of several days. These castles were not so much strongholds for the aristocracy as complexes which in their heyday served diverse purposes, ranging from hunting lodges to caravan rest-stops. Built chiefly during the period of Umayyad rule over the region in the 7th and 8th centuries CE, and scattered over hundreds of square kilometres in Jordan's Eastern Desert, they differ greatly from one another in terms of their setting, layout and degree of preservation and restoration. 

Quseir Amra

One desert castle in particular stands out as it enjoys the status of world heritage site. Known as Quseir Amra, the complex originally served as a garrison and pleasure palace of the Umayyad caliphate. On the day of my visit on a very hot day in July there was no one else around apart the keyholder who insisted on giving me a personal tour (gratuity expected of course). Although the site is quite modest as one approaches from the high ground near the roadway, the interior is incredible, with beautiful frescoes covering the walls, including one of the earliest known surviving portrayals of a map of the heavens on a domed ceiling. 

Domed ceiling featuring map of the heavens

Credit goes to the Jordanian authorities for taking steps to maintain and protect Quseir Amra, and perhaps from this perspective it is just as well that the site is not marketed as an "A-list" destination, given the physical damage and other ill-effects that mass tourism is clearly inflicting on Petra.

Destruction of Sana'a Old City decried

The death and destruction currently being visited on Yemen is shocking by any measure, and all the more so for the fact that it is so underreported in the Western media. As such, Belkis Wille and James Ross' recent opinion article published by Reuters on October 9, 2015 is a welcome counterpoint.

As the authors indicate, not only has the Saudi-led air campaign resulted in over 2,000 civilians deaths, but those responsible on both sides for the destruction of historical buildings in the Old City of Sana'a are effectively committing war crimes. The risk of not acting to stop this destruction is an "impending threat to Yemen’s — and humanity’s — cultural heritage."

Application to have ancient Iranian aqueducts registered as a world heritage site

I normally associate aqueducts with structures that allow for the movement of water above ground, sometimes at substantial heights. I was not aware that the ancient Persians built complex aqueducts, known as qanats, over long distances as long ago as 1000 BCE, and in many cases these aqueducts are still in use today, three millennia later! 

The Iranian authorities have recently applied to UNESCO to have 11 of these aqueducts registered as a world heritage site. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's application is to be considered at a UNESCO summit in July 2016.

Homage to Khaled al-Asaad, known as "Mr. Palmyra"

Among the thousands who have been killed in the conflict in Syria in recent years, the death of Khaled al-Assad certainly struck a chord with archaeologists, curators and lovers of history the world over. Captured by the so-called Islamic State when it overran the city of Palmyra this past Spring, Mr. al-Assad reportedly refused the divulge the whereabouts of ancient artefacts and was beheaded by IS for his steadfastness.

This Boston Globe reported this week that the city's Museum of Fine Arts is honouring Mr. al-Assad by putting on display a relief bust made in Palmyra in Roman times. A funerary sculpture, the bust features a woman and dates from the 2nd century CE.

A fitting tribute to a man whose lifelong efforts to preserve, document and study Palmyra's ancient historical heritage earned him the moniker "Mr. Palmyra".

Ancient monumental arch in Palmyra demolished by Islamic State

The destruction of Syria's ancient cultural heritage continued today with the reported demolition of a 2nd century CE monumental arch at Palmyra, a world heritage site seized by militants of the so-called Islamic State in May 2015.

The arch was reportedly built during Emperor Septimius Severus's reign (193 to 211 CE), possibly to celebrate his victories over the Parthians. Elaborately decorated, the arch was emblematic of the city when Western travellers brought back to Europe their accounts and illustrations of the site in the 18th century.