breaking latest news – A 30-year-old Italian tourist died while visiting the archaeological site of Petra. The Farnesina confirms that the embassy ad Amman is in contact with the family and who is providing assistance for the procedures for returning to Italy.
The man, a thirty year old originally from Torino, was traveling alone and according to the average he was walking along a path closed to the passage when he crashed, falling from a height of 25 meters. Rescuers transported him to Queen Rania Al-Abdullah Hospital, where it was only possible to ascertain his death.
A medical source told Jordanian TV Roya that the tourist had several reports fractures e wounds in various parts of the body, which led to his death. The Petra Archaeological Park constantly warns visitors and tourists not to take paths that are not intended for them.
The Jordanian police are working on the dynamics of the accident.
Because Petra is crumbling
The death of an Italian tourist in Petra, in the southern desert of Jordan, rekindles the spotlight on the fragility of the ancient Pink Cityfounded 2800 years ago and a World Heritage Site since 1985. For several years geologists and archaeologists have been sounding the alarm because the limestone rocks in which the ancient capital of the Nabatei are crumbling, thanks to climate change.
Accidents had already happened: in 2020 a 32-year-old tourist from Piacenza had died from the fall of a boulder that detached from the rocky part, following heavy rains. In 2016, a 23-year-old Israeli hiker died after slipping off a cliff near Petra, as did a 75-year-old American tourist visiting the site in 2008.
Il crazy weather it makes floods more frequent in a usually very arid area. At the end of December 700 tourists had been rescued after a sudden storm. In November 2018, a wave of exceptional bad weather hit the ruins and only the promptness of the guides made it possible to save the 3,700 visiting tourists by making them climb the paths that dominate the tomb of the Treasury.
After all, the ancient city, a meeting point for traders and warriors, underwent a slow decline precisely because of earthquakes and other natural disasters. And now that tourism has restarted at full capacity after Covid (900,000 visitors in 2022, close to the record of one million in 2019), the risks deriving from the erosion of the city carved into the rock are even more evident.
In 2011, a team of Italian rock climbers started interventions for the safety of the areas most at hydrogeological risk of the city carved into the rock, in particular the Siq, the kilometer-long canyon through which visitors can reach the heart of the city. The unsafe stones that threatened visitors and guides were blocked or eliminated. The rock climbers also offered a safety course to the many Jordanians who climb the steep walls of the archaeological site of Petra every day.
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