(17 Jun 2016) LEAD IN:
Members of a former cave dwelling tribe of Petra are returning to the homes of their forefathers.
Al-Bdoul is one of Jordan's oldest tribes. It used to inhabit the caves in the stone-carved city until about 30 years ago when the government moved them into housing blocs outside Petra.
Residents say crowding in the Bdoul tribe's government-built village has reached tipping point with zoning restricting the village's growth.
STORY-LINE:
The world-famous Petra draws thousands of tourists every year to its 2,300-year-old Nabataean ruins.
While admiring these massive stone temples, visitors to Petra might also notice hundreds of caves dug into the nearby pink rock.
And if they looked even closer, they'd see some of the caves aren't empty.
For the first time in 31 years, some people are moving back to Petra's caves.
Unable to expand their village adjacent to the site, dozens are moving back into the caves of their forefathers.
On the steep steps up to the iconic monastery of Petra perches Suleiman al-Bdoul's "Halfway Shop".
Here, he sells trinkets, cold drinks, plus some free words of encouragement to passing visitors.
There are dozens of these shops around Petra run by members of the Bdoul tribe, traditional guardians of the site who brought the first westerner here 204 years ago.
Founded in the second century BC by the Nabataeans, an ancient civilisation of desert nomads turned urbanites, Petra was for nearly five centuries a highly-developed, agriculture-based society and crossroads for the silk and spice trade among Asia, Egypt, Greece and Rome.
Its importance waned after a devastating earthquake in 363 AD.
By 700 AD, it had all but vanished until it was rediscovered by a Swiss explorer in 1812.
Petra's unique desert ruins - buildings and tombs carved directly into red sandstone cliffs - have become a major tourist site in the last 50 years.
Most Bdoul work in the park during the day and spend nights in the nearby Umm Sayhoun village.
But now a growing number of people, like Suleiman al-Bdoul, have left the village and returned to Petra.
Every day, he locks up his shop and strolls down this ancient rock path to his family's cave.
His mother, Basma, waits with hot tea brewed on a small gas burner.
The inside is clean, with white walls covered with small decorative designs.
"We've returned to the caves because us young guys have no place to stay in the village," says Suleiman.
"So many of us have just a house with two rooms where 15 or 16 people live. One doesn't have the freedom to sleep or work. Thus we decided to return to the caves of our forefathers."
Suleiman's mother, Basma, was born in Petra and cherishes her memories of its nooks and crannies.
After the Jordanian government relocated the Bdoul tribe out of Petra to the village of Umm Sayhoun in 1985, Basma defied them and quickly returned.
"We don't want Umm Sayhoun. We used to make the fire there on the sandstone plateau," she says.
"We chatted around the fire the whole night. The village has too many cars and the noise lasts until morning."
Amidst concerns the tribe was damaging the site, authorities relocated them.
In 1985 the local authorities encouraged the Bdoul to move to this modern village called Bdoul Iskan (also known as 'Umm Sayhoun') in exchange for leaving the caves.
But tour operator, Raami Manaja, says authorities haven't held up their end of the bargain.
He claims zoning regulations haven't allowed the village to grow to match population growth.
The chief of the Bdoul tribe is Salameh Eid Al-Fageer.
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