In pristine whitish surrounding, conceived (again by Hiyari) almost as a Japanese garden, pale ochre sand of the finest quality serves as the background for the contrasting Rajl stones of black volcanic rock.

Able to admire them from an elevated white wooden plank, visitors seem to float around the mystical stones, resourcefully used by nomads to leave messages for each other or show their artistic inclination.

Situated in Jordan’s Eastern Desert, at times called the Black Desert because of its black volcanic rock, Rajl is the place where nomads would arrange stones into circles and mounds called cairns. Often they would carve texts and figures on these stones (which provide an ideal black background for the beige carvings) that could be grouped from a few to over a 100. Some have a small number or no man-made markings on them. Some are grouped in long boulder walls and corral-like structures, literature explains, which may represent game traps. The function of these places is not yet established, but it is assumed they may have served as desert rallying points, camping sites during hunting season, herding or burial sites.

The incised images include wild animals, such as oryx, deer, cat, ibex, ostrich, or domesticated animals like camel, horse, dog, donkey, sheep. The rock art also shows men and women, as well as hunting and caravan scenes.

The texts are mostly written in Safaitic, but also in Kufi Arabic, an indication that they are the product of the 8th century.

Although the creation of nomadic people of the desert, some show incredible artistic talent. The outline of the animals is realistic, the women voluptuous, the signs and marks clear. Little known to the public, the stones exhibited at Darat Al Funun make the viewer privileged.

The treasure trove is not exhausted, and the marvels of the desert continue to unravel themselves. The Petra papyri are a group of 140 carbonised papyrus scrolls found at Petra in excavations conducted by the American Centre of Oriental Research under the direction of Pierre M. Bikai. The texts are written in Byzantine Greek. They belonged to Theodorus, son of Obodianos, a church official in Petra. Written in the 6th century AD, the scrolls were stored in a room adjacent to the Petra church. When the church burned, the scrolls were carbonised and thus preserved. They seem to be the private papers of Theodorus’ extended family of wealthy landowners. Besides being interesting records of a family, they also “contain unique evidence of the history and development of the Arabic language [as] many of the personal names in the archives, although sounding Greek or Latin, may in fact render Semitic or more specifically Arabic equivalents”.

Up in the Blue House, Petra inspires again. This time Hakim Jamain, a Jordanian artist whose etchings/printings (on zinc plates) are renditions of the famous city where he spent much time, soaking in the place and its history.

The mostly sepia coloured works both seem to show the passage of time and are closest to the colour of the rose-red city.

Stone heads and torsos, coins, seals populate Jamain’s printings. The arid region landscape is depicted in painstaking detail. The “classical” effigies are often placed at odd angles (sideways, upside down), their perfect beauty jarring the disarrayed landscape surrounding them.

Stylised lines become a long-horned animal in a series of four smaller works; three others are more abstract, yet one feels the sand of the desert permeating everything, encroaching on the desert vegetation. And, inevitably, the Treasury makes its way into the artist’s works, in ochre brown, reddish hues, sitting under a canopy of parchment with floral motifs, giving the impression of collage and disclosing the artist’s talent.

Arabic script and Greek letters are present in this rich interpretation of Petra, its surroundings and life. Wavy, groovy images make up landscape, houses, narrow gorges, explosion of stars, all that is Petra known or yet to be discovered.