69 images Created 30 Sep 2009
Jordan, Petra
JORDAN, THE MAN THAT COULD SAVE PETRA
When visited Petra for the first time in 1982 Talal Akasheh, a professor of physical chemistry at Jordan's Hashemite University, was surprised by the beauty of the site but perhaps more by the damage that time and the elements had wrought on the monuments of one of the world's most revered cultural sites. This 2,500-year-old city was a natural stronghold for a desert tribe, the Nabataeans, who controlled the trade routes of the region. They built a sophisticated city with a system of dams, cisterns, pipes and channels to guard it from sudden floods. At its peak Petra may have sheltered 25,000 citizens but from the 3rd century natural disasters and political tides gradually eclipsed it until 1812 when the Swiss explorer Burckhardt rediscovered Petra, added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1985. The chemistry of red, sulphur and orange of his sandstone monuments dissolve grain by grain this ancient wonder. Desert winds, sun, rain, flash floods, and tourism add their irresistible weight to the erosion. Talal Akasheh has dedicated 26 years to help save Petra. <<Water is the most important element - explains - It gets into the pores of the rock, evaporates and condenses, dissolving the minerals, depositing their crystals which then grow and crack the rock>>. The Geographic Information System database (GIS) he developed, earning him a Rolex Award in 2008, offers managers of the archaeological park knowledge they need and archaeologists a new way to analyse the monuments. By 2008, the GIS's 10-gigabyte memory collated 2.000 monuments and the next step will be a 3D documentation, to study the salt content of the weathered monuments and possibly restoring the Nabataean drainage system. <<Petra must return to the desert sands but how long it endures depends on how it is cared for today-Akasheh explains - We want it to last as long as possible, and good documentation of the site keeps its memory safe, even after it is long gone>>.
When visited Petra for the first time in 1982 Talal Akasheh, a professor of physical chemistry at Jordan's Hashemite University, was surprised by the beauty of the site but perhaps more by the damage that time and the elements had wrought on the monuments of one of the world's most revered cultural sites. This 2,500-year-old city was a natural stronghold for a desert tribe, the Nabataeans, who controlled the trade routes of the region. They built a sophisticated city with a system of dams, cisterns, pipes and channels to guard it from sudden floods. At its peak Petra may have sheltered 25,000 citizens but from the 3rd century natural disasters and political tides gradually eclipsed it until 1812 when the Swiss explorer Burckhardt rediscovered Petra, added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1985. The chemistry of red, sulphur and orange of his sandstone monuments dissolve grain by grain this ancient wonder. Desert winds, sun, rain, flash floods, and tourism add their irresistible weight to the erosion. Talal Akasheh has dedicated 26 years to help save Petra. <<Water is the most important element - explains - It gets into the pores of the rock, evaporates and condenses, dissolving the minerals, depositing their crystals which then grow and crack the rock>>. The Geographic Information System database (GIS) he developed, earning him a Rolex Award in 2008, offers managers of the archaeological park knowledge they need and archaeologists a new way to analyse the monuments. By 2008, the GIS's 10-gigabyte memory collated 2.000 monuments and the next step will be a 3D documentation, to study the salt content of the weathered monuments and possibly restoring the Nabataean drainage system. <<Petra must return to the desert sands but how long it endures depends on how it is cared for today-Akasheh explains - We want it to last as long as possible, and good documentation of the site keeps its memory safe, even after it is long gone>>.
