Heritage Sites - Petra

Petra is Jordan’s most-visited tourist attraction and one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, among other top attractions such as Machu Picchu or the Great Wall of China. It was undoubtedly what we were looking forward to the most, thinking back to our first plenary session. As noted in many blogs, including mine, the diminishing number of tourists coming to Jordan is economically hurting the tourist sector. However, even though Petra visitors number halved since 2010, as a reaction on the unrest in neighbouring countries, the historical and archaeological site continue to be the most important anchor in Jordan’s tourism industry. We visited Petra on our fourth day and the site truly had an impact on us all. In this post I will describe the affect and importance of heritage sites, such as Petra, and connected them to what I could observe myself. I believe that Lowenthal’s (1985) idea that heritage sites subconsciously provide “a reassuring sense of continuity” and a sense of identity is correct and definitely explains our desire to visit such sites. However, I was more interested in the conscious part, the observable. I refer to the overwhelmed reaction of my classmate, who couldn’t grasp the beauty of the monastery and the treasury. I believe that the idea of Ashworth and Tunbridge (2000) can provide an explanation. It says that heritage sites have a great importance to a unique place or location, it is contrary the process of globalisation in which everything becomes less unique but rather part of a bigger shared culture. The reaction of my classmates showed exactly what this ‘difference’ between what you usually see and Petra generates: an overwhelming feeling of excitement that left most of us slack-jawed. To end this entry, I want to bring out another thought: I’ve visited most of the Seven New World Wonder and honestly, Petra did not overwhelm me. I kept comparing it to Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat and finally I came up with the idea that on a large scale (meaning, the more other heritage or natural sites you can compare it to) the more similarities you detect and the less impressed by the site in particular you are. So maybe the idea of the homogenisation of sites is not far off. Debatable!

LLM

Lowenthal, D. (1985) The Past is a Foreign Country, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Graham, B., Ashworth, G.J. and Tunbridge, J.E. (2000) A Geography of Heritage, London: Arnold.

The Treasury, Petra