The deluge in the empire of the sands.
Nearly 1,700 tourists were taken aback when a sudden storm turned the sandstone gorge of Petra, Jordan, into a river of mud on Monday.
For safety, the archaeological site crowded with visitors lured by the prospect of a Christmas in the middle of the desert had to be evacuated and then closed by the authorities of the region.
Expected since December 23, the storm that melted on the ancient capital of the Nabataeans on Monday was immortalized by numerous videos shared over the following days on social networks.
Despite the spectacular images, the event did not claim any casualties.
In Ma'an, on the other hand, three kilometers from Petra, three people were injured by a bus carried by the waters.
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The archaeological site was able to reopen to the public the next day, while teams from the regional authority of Petra were still working to rehabilitate the various visitor routes and drain the remains of bad weather.
Some areas of the city were affected by more than 80 mm of rainfall, said a statement from the regional authority released on Wednesday.
Regular torrents
In 2018, such circumstances led to the death of 13 people.
The most serious accident dates back to April 1963, with the death of a group of 25 people, including 23 French pilgrims carried away in the thousand-year-old parades by a torrent of mud.
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Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, the site of Petra attracts several hundred thousand visitors a year, especially during winter, when temperatures are below mild.
On December 1, the regional authority thus welcomed an attendance of nearly 821,000 visitors since the start of the year,
“the largest number of tourists in Petra since the Covid crisis”
.
Located in a mountainous massif, in the south of present-day Jordan, the site has been frequented since at least the Neolithic period.
It was occupied in antiquity by the Nabataeans, nomads whose caravan kingdom controlled for centuries the incense route, to the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula.
