UMM ÍAYÓØN: GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF A PERMANENT

Numerous studies have addressed social development in nomadic populations after resettlement across the Middle East, but few have investigated the planning and layout of these towns. This study of a bedouin settlement represents a unique investigation into Levantine urban morphology, settlement planning and transitional nomadic practices. Petra, Jordan is renowned for its classical-period rock-hewn structures and built architecture, and was designated a World Heritage Site in 1985 with the recommendation that its bedouin residents be relocated. The Bdoul clan of bedouin were resettled from the valley to a terrace at the valley’s northern rim. Measuring about two square kilometers, the village of Umm Íay ̇øn was created to support around 100 families. Supported through UNESCO, the World Bank and the Jordanian government, in consultation with national agencies and Bdoul elders, the city was designed around a single two-lane road connecting Wādī Mūsā with Petra’s northern road. The city now has around 3000 residents. Satellite imagery of Umm Sayhoun confirmed a peculiar series of oval ‘blocks’ flanking the main road that were observed through groundlevel observations. This morphology can be attributed to bedouin tent arrangement and familial relationships while living in the caves of Petra. Interviews with residents present at the early planning sessions and bedouin elders revealed that the oval blocks permitted activities and interaction common to nomadic arrangement of tents, i.e. protection from the elements outside the ring, while inside the ring we found livestock corralling, car parking and inter-clan socializing, much like bedouin living in the nearby open deserts. Introduction Throughout history, nomadic clans have had to create and adjust to new varieties of settlement through a number of different processes. There have been few studies done about how nomadic clans design their own villages and towns, leaving their nomadic ways behind as they become sedentary, whether through ‘natural processes’ or enforced settlement. During the days of the earliest cities, city design was commonly left to administrators, royalty or priests. However, it was not until recently that urban design was entrusted to trained and educated specialists. Only on rare occasions are we able examine in detail the transition of nomadic culture into sedentary and structured culture. The Bdoul bedouin of southern Jordan are currently making that very transition. Within the past 25 years, owing to political circumstances, a local bedouin clan has been forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyle in favor of permanent settlement, resulting in the evolution of a small hamlet containing a few families into a thriving village / town of nearly 3,000 people, filled with shops, garages, playgrounds, a mosque and elementary school, close to the popular tourist destination of Petra. What is most interesting about this town is its form and development over time. What was a random scattering of cement block structures is developing into an organized, structured space of common areas, gridded streets and oval block arrangements characterized by their unique open public spaces – a form unknown in previously studied urban morphologies (Fig. 1). Through town resident interviews and highly detailed digital mapping and cartography, the placement, development and evolution of this town and its distinctive design has yielded important results that will contribute to future bedouin, anthropo-