REPORTAGE

The Land of the Sun

Jordan, Asia

If you enjoy walking surrounded by nature and being captivated by a millennia-old history, then it’s time to travel to Jordan: a surprising country where history, culture, traditions, and colors blend into a mix with a truly unique charm. It’s a journey that alternates silence and wonder—deserts and canyons, stone and light—where the ancient and the present coexist naturally.

The undisputed queen is Petra: over 2,000 years of history carved into rock, one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Visiting Petra Archaeological Park is a rewarding experience not only for the grandeur of its monuments, but for the atmosphere you feel step by step, as the landscape shifts and the stone takes on ever-changing shades.

Unforgettable is the entrance through the Siq, the narrow natural corridor leading to the heart of the site: a walk suspended between towering walls, where light cuts through in beams and heightens the anticipation. And then, almost suddenly, the monumental Treasury of the Pharaoh appears, carved into the rock face—an extraordinary work of beauty, breathtaking for its harmony, proportions, and intensity.

But Jordan is not only Petra. It is also the echo of caravans and ancient routes, the hospitality of its people, and the everyday details that speak of identity and resilience. Through my photos you’ll discover different perspectives of this remarkable land: not only iconic places, but also its atmosphere, colors, and small fragments of life that make the journey truly complete.

Enjoy the viewing.

The Bedouins, desert nomads. Their mantra is “welcome”: a simple word that, on their lips, becomes a way of life. Bedouin hospitality is not a formality, but a concrete gesture—almost a necessity—born in an extreme environment where survival has always depended on solidarity: shared water, offered shade, time given to those who arrive from far away.

The Bedouins have a strong vocation for communication: they speak with their eyes, with stories, with tea poured slowly, with the patience of those who know the value of waiting. They feel the need to make you understand that, if you truly want to grasp a place, you must first get to know the people who live there. Because the desert is not only sand and silence: it is memory, orientation, inherited habits, unwritten rules that teach respect and restraint.

Even today, the Bedouins are proof of how roots, knowledge, and love for one’s land can become a point of connection. In a landscape that seems empty, they recognize traces, seasons, winds, routes; they turn what is essential into culture and harshness into dignity. Their life, lived in a place as extreme as the desert, offers a precious lesson: belonging does not mean owning, but caring—and welcoming the other as part of the journey.

Desert Wadi Rum. Jordan.

2023 © Saverio Leo

Petra. Jordan.

Petra. Jordan.