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AMMAN — A delegation from the US Congress visited Petra city on Tuesday to assess the progress of key development projects implemented by the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA) and funded by USAID.

The visit included a review of several strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing tourism infrastructure and sustainability in Petra region. 

Among the projects showcased were improved visitor flow and transportation systems within and around the archaeological reserve, as well as green growth tourism programmes designed to preserve cultural heritage and promote long-term tourism sustainability, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

These efforts are part of a broader partnership formalised through a JD15 million grant agreement signed last year between the PDTRA and USAID to support a range of development projects across the Petra region.

Chief Commissioner of the PDTRA Fares Braizat stressed the significance of these projects in enhancing Petra’s position as a “leading” global tourism destination.

He noted that the initiatives contribute to diversifying the local tourism offering, enhancing competitiveness, and enriching the visitor experience in the historic Rose City.

Braizat also expressed appreciation for USAID’s continued support, underscoring the authority’s commitment to advancing Petra’s tourism sector through innovative services and infrastructure aligned with its status as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

AMMAN — The eastern Basalt Desert was a home of a “very intensive” Christian graffiti production during first three centuries AD. Syrian-Jordanian desert was the frontier between the Roman Empire and Sassanian Empire during late Roman and early Byzantine periods. 

Thousands of drawings, tags, prayers, personal records and names testify about this activity in a desolated place and scholars try to reconstruct the life of ancient tribes by studying the meaning of this graffiti.

These graffiti are the work of nomadic pastoralist who inhabited the Black Desert and are a point of research for international and Jordanian archaeological teams.

Compared to Safaitic inscriptions, graffiti in ancient Greek are rare. One of the Greek graffito was found in 2010 with the corpus of Safaitic inscriptions by Jordanian independent historian and researcher Rafe Harahsheh. 

The location of the graffito is 35 kilometres east of Azraq, deep into the desert.

It is hardly surprising that, in addition to prehistoric sites and graffiti, many of more recent drawings and texts have been spotted in the area, said Professor Hani Hayajneh from Yarmouk University.

The professor added that the first batch of the Safaitic inscriptions was discovered by Captain Lionel Rees, a British pilot and World War I ace, in 1920s. Later, the American researcher Piere Bikai, a former director of American Centre of Research in Amman presented in 2009 30 Safaitic documents, chosen from the set of 125 texts inscribed on 77 stones.

“In 2010, an epigraphic survey of the basaltic hills and valley east of Qa Al Muqalla was carried out by Harahsheh while he worked for the Department of Antiquities of Jordan: a large number of Safaitic and Greek, Nabataean, early Islamic and Mamluk inscriptions was documented," Hayajneh said.

An edition of the new Greek inscription is intended as a supplement to all these fieldwork, Hayajneh noted.

The text is incised on a basalt pebble left in its row state approximately 40 centimetres high, 50cm wide and 20cm thick. The handwriting is influenced by cursive script.

Remarkably, the author of the inscription began to the first word of the text before realising that there was not enough space and starting again further down, the professor said, adding that the translation of the inscription states- Remember Toulos, son of Ietouros, who wrote this.

This graffito is one of records that documents a person or a prolonged stay in one place.

“Although it's quite common, it should be noted, however, that there is a mixture of two types of wording to emphasise that the mentioned person was both the one who wished to be commemorated and the one who actually engraved the text,” Hayajneh underscored.

AMMAN — Under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania, the British Council in Jordan hosted the 19th edition of the Queen Rania Outstanding UK Learner Awards on Thursday in recognition of the exceptional results of 102 Jordanian students in the IGCSE, International GCSE, International AS & A Level, GCE, and GCSE exams by Cambridge, Pearson Edexcel, and OxfordAQA.

In addition to celebrating the achievements of students who have completed the UK International Curriculum in Jordan, the annual ceremony also recognized the contributions of nine distinguished teachers and congratulated parents who supported their children throughout their academic journey, according to a statement from the British Council.  

Speaking at the ceremony, British Council Director Exams – MENA North, Ameera Mannaa said, "The Queen Rania Outstanding UK Learner Awards are a testament to the dedication and hard work of students, teachers, and parents in Jordan,” adding that the British Council is “committed to supporting the development of education systems in Jordan and promoting international cooperation and understanding.”

Mannaa also noted that the “ceremony is an opportunity for us to celebrate the achievements of these outstanding students, and to recognise the important role that education plays in shaping the future."

The awards ceremony was attended by over 400 guests, including 80 representatives from British Council Partner Schools, representatives from the Jordanian Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and representatives from UK awarding bodies, Cambridge, Pearson, and Oxford AQA. 

Established in 2003, the Queen Rania Outstanding UK Learner Awards align with Her Majesty’s vision to foster excellence in education across Jordan.

AMMAN — The bland, white walls at Amman’s Zara Centre came alive on Thursday evening, at the opening of the Image Festival Amman, in its 13th edition. 

As the hundreds of attendees strolled through the 13 photo exhibitions, they glimpsed into foreign countries, witnessed quests for loved ones, and beheld stories of rehabilitation, loss, and survival. 

At the entrance to the gallery, 19-year-old photographer Ahmed Buttma stood in front of his exhibition. “This is the experience of someone from the West Bank,” he told The Jordan Times. 

Black-and-white photos of Israeli checkpoints and soldiers were pasted onto a glass barrier, blocking entry into a room full of colourful images of mountains, rivers, and beaches in occupied Palestine, or present-day Israel. 

The young photographer is from Battir, a Palestinian village in Bethlehem. “Our life is just behind this wall, which has been stolen from us,” he added, gesturing the photos beyond the glass barrier. 

He and his colleague, Nael Ikhmais, whom he produced the exhibition with, travelled from their village, facing lengthy wait times at Israeli checkpoints and piles of paperwork along the way, to attend the Image Festival in Amman. 

“A lot of people don’t know anything about the West Bank or about the life we face, so we’re showing you the experience,” he said. 

International artists

The two young Palestinian photographers were among the 25 photographers selected for the Image Festival, its curator, Linda Khoury, told The Jordan Times. She said they received work from “all over the world,” Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Palestine, and France, just some of the countries represented. 

The Image Festival, organised by Darat Al Tasweer, will run until May 10. In addition to near-daily photography exhibition openings, the festival also offers workshops, meetings with guest photographers, portfolio readings by professionals, residential programmes, publications, and photography competitions. 

For the past two years, since the war in Gaza, Khoury said she has boycotted funding from donors who “did not support the Palestinian cause”. This meant the already-scarce funding was even lower than previous years. 

However, Khoury said that the turnout has still been “amazing”. “At the end of the day, it’s a decision I decided to take and would like to continue,” she said.  

The internationally-recognised photojournalist, Ed Kashi, has come to Amman to participate in the festival, for the third time. This year, he is displaying his work at Nofa Creative Space in Jabal Amman, on an underreported and deadly kidney disease. 

He is also leading an intensive photography workshop for festival participants. “It’s one of the beautiful aspects of being a photographer and doing this work, you get the chance to meet young photographers,” he told The Jordan Times. 

“There’s an exchange that I love, I learn a lot, and I’m hopefully doing the same for them,” he said.  

‘The strength they displayed amazed me’ 

Back at the Zara Centre, French photographer Sandro Basili, 27, guided visitors through his photo exhibition, “A Quest No Family Should Ever Have to Endure”, capturing the difficult search for those imprisoned under the former Assad government. 

Outside a small room, a few photos taken on the grounds of Syria’s notorious Sednaya Prison hung under warm lighting. In one portrait, a woman’s wrinkled hands grip onto a small photo of a mid-aged man. 

Inside the small room, the cold, white lighting and scuffed cement floor evoked the uncomfortability of a hospital. In one photo displayed, an elderly man walks through the corridors of a hospital in Damascus, hoping to identify bodies. In another, a family looks at posters of disfigured bodies.

“Families, with the thin hope they could find people alive, were still looking,” Basili told The Jordan Times. “The strength they displayed amazed me,” he said.  

‘This place holds a special meaning’ 

Near Basili’s exhibition, another photo series portrayed five ex-convicts in Lebanon, imprisoned on drug charges. 

“I worked with ex-prisoners when they were released from jail, to show how they would continue their lives, without a support system or rehabilitation programme,” the Lebanese photographer, Elsie Haddad, 43, told The Jordan Times. 

Ahmad, one of the ex-convicts Haddad worked with, stands in one photo at Beirut’s waterfront, his leg wrapped in a green cast. 

He leans on a crutch as he watches a group play volleyball on the sandy shore. Her own brother was arrested on a drug charge during the project. The young man stands in one portrait, his face covered by a cloud of smoke. 

Down the hall, 26-year-old Haitam Nsais had displayed his photos of an historic seaside promenade in the Moroccan coastal city of Larache. The spot was treasured by locals and visitors, Nsais told The Jordan Times, a peaceful space to escape the bustle of the city. 

However, it suffered from neglect and damage, and instead of considering general repairs, Nsais said the authorities were discussing demolition. 

“If this happens, it will erase the historical significance of what is one of the best places in Larache,” Nsais said. 

“This place holds a special meaning for me; it is close to my heart because it ties back to my childhood memories with my father,” Nsais continued, as he gazed at his photo of a man taking a photo of his daughter beside the sea.

AMMAN — The international community does not know how long will last the most recent of Zionist's offensives on Gaza, nor it can predict how much damage will be inflicted on the Arab and non-Jewish cultural heritage in the Gaza Strip. 

Because of that, relevant institutions, both local and international, should keep the record on artefacts, historical sites and cultural heritage that is under the constant threat.

In the early 12th century BC, groups probably originating in the Aegean established trading posts on the coastal plaine. They were known in historiography as "Sea people" and information on their ethnic origin varies. 

Sea people seem to be heterogeneous conglomeration of different ethnic groups from the Asia Minor, Greece and northern Mediterranen. However, our focus this time won't be on them.

"Conquered by the Assyrians in 734 BC, Gaza pledged allegiance to Nineveh. Under Nebuchadnezzar II, Gaza became a Babylonian outpost on the empire's Western frontier. In 539 BC, the Persian Cyrus seized Babylon and founded the Achaemenid Empire. During the Persian period, Gaza was the pearl of the Mediteranean," said British-affiliated archaeologist Claudine Dauphin. 

The archaeologist noted that all these historical periods have left their mark on an exceptional discovery in 1995: The ancient port and city of Anthedon at Tel Blakhiyyah, next to Shatteh refugee camp. 

Founded in the early 8th century BC as one of the Neo-Assyrian citadels of the buffer zone against Egypt, it was founded anew by Greek immigrants, probably from Anthedon in Beotia who took advantage of the 6th century BC boom in seaborn trade and established the new trading port of Anthedon of Palestine around 520 BC, Dauphin continued.

She added that it was active until the 12th century AD. The defensive site has been silted in, but parts of the city wall are still standing.  

The port structures used for fishing and shipbuilding and an aristocratic quarter with walls painted in Pompeii style (200 BC) were excavated by Franco-Palestinian expedition directed by Fr J.-B. Humbert, OP of EBAF, between 1995 and 2005, Dauphin underlined, adding that a Hellenistic city, Anthedon had an agora and temples. 

It was governed by a council (boule) of 500 members and had its own army commanded by a strategos, according to the Jewish Roman historian, Flavius Josephus.

In the course of his conquest of Syria, Alexander the great besieged Gaza in 332 BC, perpetrating massacres, looting and destruction. Rebuilt, Gaza regained its importance under his successors, the Ptolemaic Lagids in Egypt (323-30 BC) and the Seleucids (323-64 BC) ruling from Anatolia to the Indus.  

"In 97 BC, Gaza and Anthedon were conquered and devastated by the Jewish Hasmonean ruler, Alexander Janneus, and left deserted - a taste of what was intended but not fully achieved some 2000 years later, giving us as 21st century archaeologist hope for the renaissance of Gaza, since Anthedon was again important enough in the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima (395–636) to become a suffragan bishopric of the metropolitan archbishopric of Caesarea Palaestinae," Dauphin underlined.

In the 4th century AD, the city became an episcopal see, though the worship of Venus and Astarte survived there until the 5th century according to Sozomenon. The first known bishop of Anthedon was Paul, who took part in the Councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451). 

Bishop Eustathius took part in the Council of Jerusalem (518), and Bishop Dorotheus in the Council of Jerusalem (536). 

Roman and Byzantine Gaza

In 61 BC, the great stateman and general of the Late Roman Republic, Gnaius Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BC) consolidated Rome's hold over its eastern provinces, annexing Syria and reducing Judaea to a dependent, diminished Temple state, Dauphin said.

The aracheologist noted that seizing Gaza reinstated Greek Laws and gave the impulse for the rebuilding, implemented by his successor Aulus Gabinius (101-48/47 BC) of a theatre, hippodrome, gymnasium and stadium. 

In the 4th century, Christian sailors from Egypt settled in Maiuma, the second port of Gaza, at the end of the Nabatean spice and incense trade route. 

Goods from Southern Arabia were brought to Maiuma on the backs of camels which had trudged through Petra and the 'Araba Valley and had crossed the Naqab Desert via Eboda. 

Gaza was one of main ports and hubs of that trade and from Maiuma, these goods, as well as the produce from the agricultural land surrounding Gaza, in particular its wine in "Gaza ware" pithoi, was exported to Mediterranean markets. 

Maiuma harboured a small Jewish community, whose presence is attested by the early 6th century "inhabited scrolls" mosaic pavement of a synagogue discovered in 1965.

"The city of Gaza and its Romanised aristocracy remained pagans beyond Emperor Constantine's proclamation of the Edict of Milan [313 AD] which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire, and his convening of the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD which proclaimed the Nicene Creed establishing a common creed for all Christians,” the archaelogist said. 

“The main god worshipped in Gaza was the oracular Zeus Marnas, who brought rain to the parched, desert hinterland of Gaza," Dauphin highlighted.

His concentric, domed temple was destroyed in 402 AD under the instigation and in the presence of Porphyrius, bishop of Gaza from 395 AD to 402 AD, whose tomb (425 AD) is enclosed in the Church of St Porphyrius in Gaza. 

"While Byzantine Gaza was famous for its School of rhetoric and sophistry, headed by Procopius, and subsequently by his disciple, Choricius, and which competed with its Alexandrian counterpart, it was also the cradle of Monasticism in Byzantine Palaestina.”

“According to his hagiographic Life written in Latin by Jerome of Stridon in 389-392 AD, Hilarion was born in 291-292 AD in Thautha in the region of Gaza," Dauphin elaborated. 

He converted to Christianity in Alexandria where his wealthy family had sent him to study. At the age of 15, he joined St Anthony in the desert, but did not choose the monastic life until he had returned to Gaza in 306 AD. 

Upon hearing of the death of his parents, he disposed of his inheritance and became a hermit in the desert hinterland of Maiouma. During 22 years he led an ascetic life on the Antonine model, eating only lentils and figs at dusk, and overcoming many temptations. 

His austerity and reputation as a healer attracted monks and laymen. In 340 AD he founded a laura at Tel Umm 'Amr, near Dair Al Balah, which combined a hermit's isolated life in a cell (anachoresis), with Sunday gathering to attend church (coenobitism). 

Muslim and Crusader Gaza

In 637 CE the Muslim Arabss took Gaza. The orientation towards Christian Jerusalem of the road network of Byzantine Palestine was superseded by a Mecca-Gaza axis on which travelled the merchants of Mecca and Medina, notably Hashim Ibn 'Abd Manaf (464-497 AD), the paternal great-grandfather of Prophet Mohamed and progenitor of the ruling Banu Hashem clan of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca. 

"He died in Gaza and was buried in the Great Omary Mosque, the core of which was a large Romanesque church erected by the Crusaders during their brief occupation [1149-1187]," the scholar said, adding that the Mamluks (1260-1277) left their mark strongly by building mosques, khans and great houses (dar). 

Despite the diversion of international traffic due to new maritime trade routes, the Ottomans, who took over Gaza in 1516, pursued also a building policy expressed by mosques, Coranic Schools (madrasa), public Baths (hammam), covered markets (suq), and public fountains (sabil). 

The collection of artefacts displayed in Paris at the exhibition titled “Rescued Treasures of Gaza: 5,000 Years of History" may speak on behalf of Gazans who die on a daily basis from IDF's bombardment. The rich cultural heritage exhibited in Paris, may influence the Western public opinion to prevent the ongoing carnage in Gaza and the West Bank.