Jordan Times
Thursday, November 11, 1999
Damaging human impact on Petra can be stemmed
— visiting scholar
By Dana Charkasi
AMMAN — Human impact on Petra has doubled in the past 10 years, but it still may be the easiest problem to resolve if Jordan is to preserve this ancient treasure, said a U.S. expert on geography and environmental studies on Tuesday.
Awareness and education of tour guides to properly instruct tourists is the main objective in the preservation of the Kingdom's Nabataean city, said Tom Paradise, a Fulbright senior scholar, who teaches at the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Hawaii.
In his lecture entitled “Architectural decay in Petra: A holistic perspective to saving Jordan's heritage,” Paradise said any modern study of architectural deterioration should combine the two traditional groups: one that is centred on the intrinsic effects of decay of sites such as the quality of the material and how it reacts under certain conditions, and the second group that concentrates on extrinsic effects such as pollution, sunlight, heat, humidity, wind, the change of temperature and last but not least, the impact by human beings.
During the last 10 years, Paradise has been investigating the decay of Nabataean and Roman architecture in Petra and has discovered that, in addition to the natural weathering and erosion of rock by sunlight, rainfall, change of temperatures and wind, the impact of tourists has been massive.
“In the past decade, 50 per cent of the dressings on Petra's sandstone Roman Amphitheatre rocks eroded, something nature had to work on for 2000 years,” Paradise said.
He attributed the quick decay to the increased number of tourists who wear heavy-duty shoes that easily erode the soft sandstone.
Referring to the Roman Amphitheatre, he criticised tour guides who do not instruct people or keep them from roaming freely aside the itineraries.
“Romans were not allowed to roam around and climb on the back of the seats. They had strict rules only to use the itineraries,” Paradise said.
With the increased number of tourists there is also a higher corrosive humidity level inside the tombs from the breathing and perspiration of tourists, he said.
He added that tourists also touch and sometimes injure walls by making individual engravings thus eroding the original dressings and destroying the walls.
“Easy means such as the use of cordons would keep tourists away from the walls of the tombs and would solve many of the problems,” Paradise said.
Along with advocating the proper education of tour guides on the importance of how to lead their groups through the sites without destroying them, he also suggests limiting the size of the tourist groups.
The lecture was opened by HRH Prince Ra'd Ben Zeid, president of the Petra National Trust, whose mandate is to protect and preserve Petra and its environs.
The event was organised by the Binational Fulbright Commission in Jordan in cooperation with the Petra National Trust.